A plane on the tarmac at Beirut International Airport. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'OLJ)
In the wake of the cease-fire reached between Hezbollah and Israel, which took effect at dawn on Wednesday, Nov. 27, several airlines have announced their intentions to resume flights to Rafik Hariri International Airport (RHIA). These flights had been suspended in September when clashes between the two parties escalated.
Some carriers have either decided to wait until the holidays are over or chosen to act early to capture demand primarily from members of the Lebanese diaspora ahead of the holiday season.
These travelers quickly exhausted available seats on Middle East Airlines (MEA) flights, which had been the only airline serving the Lebanese capital over the past two months. MEA has already increased its flight availability starting Dec. 12 and has begun adding extra flights, according to an anonymous source within the company.
Lebanese travel agencies are also seeing a surge in activity. "In five days, we worked as much as we did during the entire month of November," said Raymond Wehbe, head of the Beirut-based We Reach the World agency, a sentiment echoed by two other agencies.
"On certain routes, such as Beirut-Paris, planes are currently full on arrival to Beirut and nearly empty on departure. For others, like routes between Beirut and Gulf countries or Iraq, flights are packed in both directions," he added. Prices have, unsurprisingly, soared.
The president of the Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies in Lebanon believes this strong demand "could prompt airlines to revise their plans, and there’s a strong likelihood that several regional carriers will resume flights to Beirut in the coming days." In peak season, RHIA’s monthly passenger numbers can easily exceed 500,000 in a normal year, including departures, arrivals, and transits.
Wehbe also noted that all airlines resuming flights to Beirut are doing so gradually and could adjust their plans if the security situation warrants, a view confirmed by Attal.
Airlines confirming December flight resumptions:
- Royal Jordanian: The first airline to resume flights between Amman and Beirut, operating one flight daily since Sunday, Dec. 1.
- Turkish Airlines: Initially planned to restart flights on Saturday, Nov. 30, but delayed until Dec. 3 for the first Istanbul-Beirut flight. It may soon increase flight frequencies, according to travel agency sources.
- Ethiopian Airlines: Officially announced its resumption of flights between Beirut and Addis Ababa, with the first scheduled for Dec. 8.
- Qatar Airways: Set to resume operations on Dec. 9, starting with one round-trip flight per day.
Airlines still considering:
- EgyptAir: Tentatively scheduled to resume Cairo-Beirut flights on Dec. 17, though not all agencies have formally confirmed this.
- Iraqi Airways: Planned to gradually restore flights from various Iraqi cities (Baghdad, Najaf, Sulaymaniyah, Erbil) to Beirut starting Sunday, but has yet to do so.
- Emirates: Expected to resume flights on Dec. 9, despite earlier reports of a suspension until Jan. 1, 2025.
- Etihad Airways: Considering resuming flights from Dec. 18.
Airlines opting out for now:
- Air France: Announced on Monday, Dec. 2, that its Paris-Charles de Gaulle to Beirut flights would remain suspended through Jan. 5, citing security concerns. This also applies to its low-cost subsidiary, Transavia, which operates flights between RHIA and Orly.
- Lufthansa Group: Including Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, and Eurowings, it is unlikely to return to Lebanon before early March.
No updates have been received from other airlines that usually serve Lebanon, such as Cyprus Airways or Aegean Airlines. Before the clashes between Hezbollah and Israel began on Oct. 8, 2023, around 60 airlines operated flights to RHIA.
