The number of passengers travelling via the Beirut International Airport (BIA) rose by 57.53% y-o-y to 4,184,203 in the first eight months of 2022, up from 2,656,124 passengers in the same period in 2021. This rebound in the number of passengers can be attributed to the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased population vaccination rate around the globe 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. More specifically, the number of arriving travelers rose by 60.87% y-o-y to 2,083,168 and the number of departing travelers increased by 57.71% to 2,081,146 while the number of transit travelers fell by 52.16% to 19,889. The number of flights saw a sharp rebound (39.61% on a yearly basis) to 34,510. It is worth highlighting in this context that the share of Middle East Airlines (MEA) of total flights rose from 33.93% during the first eight months of 2021 to 37.34% by end of August of the current year. This is further sketched in the table below: