One of the halls of Beirut International Airport. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin)
BEIRUT – Airport passengers (arrivals, departures and transit) dropped to 5.1 million in the first 10 months of 2024, down from 6.3 million over the same period in 2023, or a decrease of 19.1 percent, according to data compiled by Byblos Bank’s latest Lebanon This Week report, and based in figures released by the Rafik Hariri International Airport (RHIA).
Against the backdrop of the escalation of Israeli violence across Lebanese territories, the number of passengers decreased by a staggering 61.1 percent, down from 485,699 passengers in September to just 189,068 in October 2024.
The number of arriving passengers had reached 2.45 million passengers between January and October 2024, a contraction of 19.8 percent compared to the 3.06 million recorded during the same period in 2023. Those arriving in October totaled 41,312, compared to 210,113 in September, a drastic drop of 80.3 percent, and down 63.4 percent from the 516,803 recorded in October 2023.
The number of departing passengers stood at 2.63 million during the first 10 months of 2024, compared with 3.25 million between January and October 2023, or a decrease of 18.3 percent. The number of departing passengers dropped by 46.3 percent from 275,306 in September 2024 to 147,746 in October 2024, and decreased by more than half compared to October 2023.
The stall in airport traffic can also be attributed to the fact that all airlines have canceled their flights in and out of Beirut in late September when the war took a new unprecedented turn, leaving Lebanon’s national carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) the only player on the scene.
Tourist arrivals down by 24 percent
The cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel since Oct. 8 strung tourism in Lebanon, deterring tourists from visiting the country and impacting the tourism sector, which accounts for 30 percent of Lebanese Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Numbers put forward by the Tourism Ministry and compiled by Lebanon This Week indicate that the number of incoming visitors stood at 933,976 in the first eight months of 2024 (the most up-to-date data available), down from 1,229,350 over the same time in 2023 or a drop of 24 percent.
Incoming visitors gradually decreased from 195,992 in July to 107,909 in August 2024, while there were 210,458 visitors in August 2023, a time when the summer tourist season exceeded expectations, just two months before the onset of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023.
Europeans made up the largest share of incoming visitors, with a total of 384,491 or 41.2 percent of all tourists between January and August 2024, followed by Arab country nationals (24.4 percent), visitors from the Americas (20.7 percent), Asia (5.1 percent), Africa (4.6 percent) and Oceania (4.1 percent).