The heightened security tensions in Lebanon during the month of August 2024 following the Israeli aggressions on the country’s southern borders and Beirut suburbs prompted international airlines to cancel some of its flights to and from Lebanon, the result of which was a significant 39.65% monthly drop in the number of arriving travelers, 24.16% increase in the number of departing travelers and 55.13% contraction in the number of transit travelers in the eighth month of 2024. On a cumulative basis, the number of passengers travelling via the Beirut International Airport (BIA) fell by 11.72% y-o-y in the first eight months of 2024 to 4.42 million, down from 5.01 million passengers a year earlier. More specifically, the number of arriving travelers dropped by 12.33% y-o-y to 2,204,432 with the number of departing travelers decreasing by 10.96% to 2,211,071 and the number of transit travelers receding by 58.56% to 3,149. Concurrently, the number of flights saw an annual decline of 10.28% over the concerned period to 35,789. It is worth highlighting in this context that the share of Middle East Airlines (MEA) fell from 42.45% of the total number of flights in the first eight months of 2023 to 40.63% in the same period this year. This is further sketched in the table below: