Beirut, Lebanon – On June 6, Lebanon’s second airport acquired a flight carrying a variety of officers, together with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
For many years, Lebanon has needed to depend on what was the nation’s sole airport, simply south of Beirut. However the June 6 flight marked the reopening of the Rene Mouawad Airport within the northern Lebanese city of Qlayaat, which officers hope can be a second hub for the nation’s worldwide journey, with potential flights to Dubai, Istanbul, and a second location in Turkiye.
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“The opening flight was a ceremonial flight, and it’s a milestone for positive,” Mazen Sammak, president of the Personal Pilot Affiliation of Lebanon, advised Al Jazeera. “However the problem lies within the subsequent phases as a result of [turning] a ceremony to actuality has many challenges.”
Extra work to be completed
The airport in Qlayaat, named after former Lebanese President Rene Mouawad, was initially supposed to obtain passengers round midyear. However Israeli assaults have led to delays because the Lebanese state’s consideration turned in direction of the fallout of the battle.
Since March 2, Israel has killed 3,826 individuals in Lebanon and displaced greater than 1.2 million. A third effort at a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was introduced earlier this week, and since then, many Lebanese have began to enterprise dwelling.
In November 2024, after a yr of Israeli assaults on Lebanon, the World Financial institution estimated Lebanon wanted about $11bn for reconstruction and restoration. Lebanon has suffered not less than one other $3bn in war-related losses throughout Israel’s newest intensification of the battle since March, although the determine is probably going a lot increased.
Any mission that would result in an financial increase is due to this fact welcome, significantly in northern Lebanon, one of many nation’s poorest and most underserved areas.
Qlayaat is six kilometres (3.7 miles) from the Syrian border and would serve that area, in addition to main Syrian cities like Homs and the Syrian coast.
Actually, specialists advised Al Jazeera, the change of regime in Syria in December 2024 has offered an impetus for the airport mission, as Syria’s former Assad authorities had been against the thought, with some speculating that it didn’t need competitors for its personal home airports.
However with new governments in each Syria and Lebanon – Salam got here to energy in Lebanon in 2025 – plans for this airport progressed quickly. The hopes now are that, inside three months or so, the airport will serve smaller planes and low-cost airways.
Sammak stated that throughout the first yr, the airport may serve roughly 115,000 passengers and attain 600,000 by the fourth yr.
“We’re nonetheless within the rehabilitation part, which ought to take round three months from now,” he stated. Over the following three months, the airport might want to set up a short lived terminal, areas for luggage dealing with, safety screening, and check-in counters.
“You don’t actually have a lavatory there proper now,” Sammak stated, including that three locations have been confirmed to land at Qlayaat: Istanbul, Dubai, and Mersin in Turkiye.
A second airport – for Israel to destroy?
The opening of a second airport in Lebanon has led some within the nation to worry that Israel might destroy Beirut airport, which is surrounded by town’s southern suburbs – often known as Dahiyeh.
Dahiyeh was badly broken throughout 2024 and 2026, as Israel attacked Hezbollah targets within the space.
Israel struck Beirut airport within the 2006 battle with Hezbollah, and whereas Israel didn’t assault it in the newest battle, fears persist that it might determine to take action sooner or later.
However Sammak dismissed the notion that the federal government’s actions had something to do with Israel’s assaults.
“I feel that Israel won’t await the Lebanese authorities to function one other airport [so that it can] hit Beirut Worldwide Airport,” he stated. “We take a look at this [Rene Mouawad] airport as an financial catalyst and as a contingency.”
Sammak stated that if Israel did need to hurt Lebanon, it may hit each the airports in Beirut and Qlayaat, as a substitute of only one.
“They’ll hit any financial facility in Lebanon, like [in 2006] they did once they hit all of the bridges, throughout Lebanon, even within the northern areas,” he stated. “So nobody can cease Israel from doing so. However for now, I don’t see any relation between [the progress of Rene Mouawad Airport and Israel’s attacks].”
Within the meantime, Sammak stated the main focus has shifted to getting the airport ready for receiving passengers: ending the terminal, securing new routes, and buying security certificates. However he warned in opposition to makes an attempt by political forces to plant their very own individuals within the airport mission, as has occurred in different authorities tasks within the post-civil battle (1975-1990) period.
“Specialists are wanted, not anybody can deal with these points; we’d like specialists within the subject,” he stated. “And I hope that politics won’t intrude in assigning non-reliable or non-expert individuals on this, and this can’t be completed by politically assigned individuals. We want actual specialists who’ve the capabilities and independence to take action.”
