The heightened security tensions in Lebanon during the month of September 2024 following the Israeli aggressions on several areas in the country prompted international airlines to cancel some of its flights to and from Lebanon, the result of which was a significant 15.29% monthly drop in the number of arriving travelers, 34.62% decrease in the number of departing travelers and 8.50% contraction in the number of transit travelers in the ninth month of 2024. On a cumulative basis, the number of passengers travelling via the Beirut International Airport (BIA) fell by 15.17% y-o-y in the first nine months of 2024 to 4.90 million, down from 5.78 million passengers a year earlier. More specifically, the number of arriving travelers dropped by 15.45% y-o-y to 2,414,545 with the number of departing travelers decreasing by 14.78% to 2,486,377 and the number of transit travelers receding by 58.33% to 3,429. Concurrently, the number of flights saw a sharp annual drop of 13.40% over the concerned period to 39,748. It is worth highlighting in this context that the share of Middle East Airlines (MEA) fell from 41.81% of the total number of flights in the first nine months of 2023 to 41.56% in the same period this year. This is further sketched in the table below: