The number of passengers travelling via the Beirut International Airport (BIA) widened by 19.57% y-o-y to 1,442,772 during the first half of 2021, up from 1,206,671 passengers during the same period in 2020. This rebound in the number of passengers can be attributed to many factors, namely the reclassification of Lebanon as a green zone after it managed to considerably contain the COVID-19 pandemic and the historic depreciation of the Lebanese pound which makes it an attractive destination for tourists and for the Lebanese diaspora from a purchasing power perspective. More specifically, the number of arriving travelers rose by 29.59% y-o-y to 730,794 with the number of departing travelers also increasing by 9.00% to 684,205. Similarly, the number of transit travelers soared by 84.61% to 27,773 up to June, with the number of flights settling 18.48% higher on a yearly basis at 15,052. It is worth highlighting in this context that the share of Middle East Airlines (MEA) of total flights dropped from 39.59% during the first six months of 2020 to 33.56% in the same period this year. This is further sketched in the table below: