
A plane on the tarmac of Beirut Airport. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour)
The number of passengers at Rafik Hariri International Airport (RHIA) (arrivals, departures, and transits) reached 5.62 million in 2024, marking a decrease of 20.8 percent compared to the 7.1 million passengers in 2023, according to the latest figures published by the airport and compiled by the weekly report Lebanon This Week by Byblos Bank.
This decline is largely linked to the war between Hezbollah and Israel, which started on Oct. 8, 2023, after which many countries advised their nationals against traveling to Beirut. With the intensification of strikes in Lebanon at the end of September, Lebanese expatriates and foreign tourists partially refrained from traveling to Beirut, and airlines eventually suspended their flights to and from Lebanon. The national airline Middle East Airlines thus remained the only one to operate flights for two months, until the cease-fire came into effect on Nov. 27.
Regarding incoming passengers in 2024, the country experienced a contraction of 20.6 percent compared to the 3.48 million passengers recorded in 2023, with a level reaching 2.76 million passengers in 2024. According to official figures, 234,644 travelers arrived in Beirut, an increase of 225 percent compared to the 72,197 passengers registered in November 2024 when the war was still raging, and a decrease of 10.3 percent compared to the 261,557 arrivals recorded in the same month in 2023.
In terms of departures, the number of passengers amounts to 2.86 million in 2024, recording a decrease of 21 percent compared to the 3.6 million passengers in 2023. In December, the number of passengers increased by 84 percent, reaching 145,216 passengers, compared to 78,863 passengers in November. On the other hand, it is down by 33.8 percent year-on-year (219,449 passengers in December 2023).
The December 2024 recovery coincides with the gradual return of several airlines that had disappeared from the Lebanese scene (Turkish Airlines, Royal Jordanian, Pegasus, and others), and the return of Lebanese expatriates for the end-of-year holidays.