The number of passengers travelling via the Beirut International Airport (BIA) rose by 90% y-o-y to 1,999,056 in the first five months of 2022, up from 1,052,191 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 94.29% y-o-y to 964,228 with the number of departing travelers also increasing by 90.99% to 1,023,909. On the other hand, the number of transit travelers fell by 44.90% to 10,919, with the number of flights settling 53.31% higher on a yearly basis at 17,972. It is worth highlighting in this context that the share of Middle East Airlines (MEA) of total flights rose from 33.41% during the first five months of 2021 to 35.86% by end of May of the current year. This is further sketched in the table below: