Travelers at Beirut international airport. (Credit: AFP archive photo)
BEIRUT — Caretaker Transport Minister Ali Hamieh announced on Thursday the abandonment of a "mutual agreement" reached with the Irish semi-private company Dublin Airport Authority International (DAA International) regarding the construction of a second terminal at Beirut's international airport, after he faced backlash over the more than $120 million project. Several NGOs and Lebanese MPs protested the agreement.
"Despite the importance of building a new terminal, and after the legal controversy in the country … I announce, in a courageous way, that there will be no continuation of this contract [and] that [it] will be considered nonexistent," said the minister at a press conference.
Hamieh made the announcement just before a scheduled meeting of the parliamentary Public Works Committee on the matter.
The announcement last week of the project to build a new terminal at the Beirut airport without going through the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority fueled controversy, raising once again the specter of the corruption blamed for the dire economic crisis in which Lebanon has been mired for over three years.
The project provided for the awarding of the construction site, estimated at $122 million, to DAA International, which would have benefited until 2052 from the profits of the new terminal, which the project anticipated would open in March 2027.
This case took a slight European twist on Wednesday after the European Integrity Observatory for Lebanon, a transnational NGO campaigning for transparency and justice in Lebanon, sent a letter to the Irish financial crime office, the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau. In its letter, the Observatory's legal team called on this division of the Irish national police force to investigate the memorandum of understanding signed last week in Beirut between Hamieh and DAA International.
Built in 1998, the current and only terminal at Beirut airport can accommodate 6 million passengers per year. A capacity exceeded since 2013, according to airport figures, with a peak of 8.8 million passengers in 2018 and the expectation of 7.2 million this year.
