The number of passengers travelling via the Beirut International Airport (BIA) widened by 70.56% y-o-y to 2,656,124 during the first eight months of 2021, up from 1,557,304 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 78.36% y-o-y to 1,294,953 with the number of departing travelers also increasing by 64.46% to 1,319,595. Similarly, the number of transit travelers soared by 43.85% to 41,576 up to August, with the number of flights settling 42.40% higher on a yearly basis at 24,718. It is worth highlighting in this context that the share of Middle East Airlines (MEA) of total flights dropped from 36.74% during the first eight months of 2020 to 33.93% in the same period this year. This is further sketched in the table below: