The world’s largest passenger jet landed at Beirut’s international airport yesterday. It brought in a new hope for a revival of Lebanon’s tourism sector.Published on : Friday, March 30, 2018
The world’s largest passenger jet landed at Beirut’s international airport yesterday. It brought in a new hope for a revival of Lebanon’s tourism sector.
The one-off Emirates Airbus A380 flight from Dubai was an acknowledgement of the substantial passenger traffic between Lebanon and Gulf nations, where many Lebanese nationals work and pass through to various other destinations.
Emirates said that it scheduled the flight, which is the first of its kind to carry paying passengers, to see if Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport was ready to handle regular A380 service.
Lebanon welcomed 1.85 million tourists in 2017, according to the Tourism Ministry. There are nine flights on a regular basis from Dubai to Beirut, on three different carriers.
Tourism constitutes one of the key pillars of Lebanon’s economy, accounting for 19 percent of the country’s GDP, according to the U.K.-based World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).
However, Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, Lebanon’s only commercial airfield, is greatly out-of-date and long lines at security is gruelling during the summer months, when throngs of expatriates visit the country.
The airport, renovated after the 1975-1990 civil war, was designed to handle 6 million passengers annually. In 2017, it saw over 8 million, according to the airport’s research department.
Lebanon’s Cabinet and the country’s flagship airline, Middle East Airlines, are considering expanding and improving the airport’s facilities, one costing $88 million and the other $200 million. Their aim is to expand capacity to 10 million passengers annually by 2020.
Tags: Beirut’s international airport