The number of passengers travelling via the Beirut International Airport (BIA) more than doubled y-o-y to 1,103,928 in the first quarter of 2022, up from 549,476 passengers in the same period in 2021. This rebound in the number of passengers can be attributed to many factors, namely the significant increase in the vaccination rate against COVID-19 and the less fatal Omicron variant, not to mention 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 118.53% y-o-y to 514,736 with the number of departing travelers also increasing by 93.47% to 582,790. On the other hand, the number of transit travelers fell by 49.57% to 6,402, with the number of flights settling 58.06% higher on a yearly basis at 10,261. It is worth highlighting in this context that the share of Middle East Airlines (MEA) of total flights rose from 34.97% during the first quarter of 2021 to 36.82% by end of March of the current year. This is further sketched in the table below: