admin Lebanon launched the rehabilitation of its second airport on Saturday, in preparation for an opening within months, at a time when the country faces constant fighting between Hizbollah and Israel.
Lebanon currently has one international airport, in Beirut next to the capital’s southern suburbs, a Hizbollah stronghold that has been subjected to heavy Israeli bombardment during successive wars.
The new airport, in the town of Qlayaat in Lebanon’s northernmost province of Akkar, near the border with Syria, has been used as a military base by the Lebanese army for decades.
Lebanese Minister of Transport and Public Works Fayez Rasamny inaugurated the airport on Saturday “after more than fifty years of promises, delays and waiting.”
Lebanese PM Nawaf Salam (centre left) arrives to attend a ceremony at the Rene Mouawad Airport in the town of Qlayaat on Saturday. AFP
“Today we are moving from promise to execution,” Rasamny said, adding that the goal is for the airport to be “operational in a few weeks” to serve travellers to Mersin, Istanbul and Dubai, adding there are plans to expand the destinations to Saudi Arabia, Cairo and Athens at a later stage.
Lebanon is also in contact with low-cost airlines, such as Ryanair and Pegasus, he said.
Rehabilitation is due to begin next week and will take at least three months, going through a pilot phase before the airport is put into full service in November 2026, according to local media.
The work is being carried out by the Lebanese company Sky Lounge, which on Saturday posted on its Instagram page a video of a test flight between Beirut airport and Qlayaat airport.
In a speech during the opening ceremony, the company’s chairman, Ziad Munla, said, the passenger terminal will be completed “within 90 days after completing the required approvals and licenses.”
Men dressed in traditional attire pose next to an airplane at the Rene Mouawad Airport in the town of Qlayaat. AFP
The airport will be able to handle about 114,000 passengers in its first year, rising to more than 600,000 by its fourth year, he said.
The opening of the airport aims to create jobs in Akkar, one of Lebanon’s poorest governorates with a high unemployment rate.
Rene Mouawad Airport, named after a former Lebanese president who was elected in the 1980s, was built by the French army as an airstrip in the 1930s.
It was used for civilian purposes in the 1960s and was bombed by Israel during an earlier war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
Beirut airport has continued to operate despite during the Israel-Hezbollah war that began on March 2, and an earlier war in 2023 and 2024.
Lebanon has been forced to repeatedly pursue international guarantees that Israel will not target Beirut airport, which it has previously accused Hizbollah of using to transport money and weapons.
Lebanese authorities have repeatedly denied the Israeli allegations.
Agence France-Presse
