The number of passengers travelling via the Beirut International Airport (BIA) rose by 64.16% y-o-y to 3,390,916 in the first seven months of 2022, up from 2,065,575 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 against the Dollar which makes Lebanon an attractive destination for tourists and for the Lebanese diaspora from a purchasing power perspective. More specifically, the number of arriving travelers rose by 62.37% y-o-y to 1,764,563 and the number of departing travelers increased by 70.48% to 1,609,961 while the number of transit travelers fell by 52.37% to 16,392. The number of flights saw a sharp rebound (43.91% on a yearly basis) to 28,589. It is worth highlighting in this context that the share of Middle East Airlines (MEA) of total flights rose from 33.72% during the first seven months of 2021 to 36.79% by end of July of the current year. This is further sketched in the table below: