The number of passengers travelling via the Beirut International Airport (BIA) widened by 52.23% y-o-y to 2,065,575 during the first seven months of 2021, up from 1,356,905 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 66.75% y-o-y to 1,086,773 with the number of departing travelers also increasing by 37.93% to 944,385. Similarly, the number of transit travelers soared by 67.98% to 34,417 up to July, with the number of flights settling 36.18% higher on a yearly basis at 19,866. It is worth highlighting in this context that the share of Middle East Airlines (MEA) of total flights dropped from 38.75% during the first seven months of 2020 to 33.72% in the same period this year. This is further sketched in the table below: