Gerald Butt/NICOSIA
The Lebanese government has introduced an open-skies policy at Beirut airport in an effort to increase passenger and cargo traffic, and boost the country's ailing economy. At present only around 1.5 million passengers each year pass through the new 6-million-capacity airport, which was built at a cost of $450 million. The new measure lifts the restriction on aircraft capacity and the frequency of flights .
Restrictions had been introduced to protect national carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) which, with a fleet of nine aircraft and 5,000 employees, is operating at a loss and has big debts. MEA opposed the introduction of the open-skies policy, arguing that there were already too many international flights operating in and out of Beirut.
Speaking after the government announcement, MEA chairman Mohammed Hout said he would be taking up the issue with senior officials because "naturally I do not favour their policy". But Riad Abdallah, Lebanon's representative at ICAO, said he believed that "open-skies will force MEA to modernise and lower its cost to become competitive". Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri said the lifting of restrictions at Beirut airport would "activate commerce, tourism and services".
Before the outbreak of the civil war in Lebanon in 1975, Beirut was one of the leading airports in the Middle East. But years of warfare and restrictive measures have left it far behind the two major hubs in the region, Dubai and Bahrain.
Source: Flight International