Beirut International Airport activity improved markedly on a monthly basis in August, with the number of passengers increasing by 15.71% month-on-month to 835,817, reflecting the seasonal pickup in travel during the summer season. Nevertheless, passenger traffic remained well below the 930,037 level recorded a year earlier, as expatriates and tourists remained cautious about the risk of renewed hostilities in the region. Additionally, the hike in ticket prices due to the increase in the price of oil may also have contributed to the annual drop. The ratio of departing to arriving passengers attained 1.26x in August 2026 (as most expatriates and tourists return to their country of residence ahead of schools/universities reopening) compared to 0.65x in July 2026, 0.74x in June, and 0.82x in May. On a cumulative basis, the total number of passengers dropped by 24.08% y-o-y to ~3.58 million passengers in the first eight months of 2026 down from 4.72 million passengers a year earlier. More specifically, the number of arriving travelers via the BIA dropped by 15.27% m-o-m and by 26.56% y-o-y to 1.81 million YTD August 2026. The number of departing travelers rose by 63.12% m-o-m yet receded by 21.42% y-o-y to 1.77 million. The number of transit travelers, on the other hand, increased by 5.28% m-o-m and by 99.00% y-o-y to 2,199. As to the number of flights, the latter saw a monthly increase of 10.41% and an annual drop of 19.09% in the first eight months of the current year to 29,590. It is worth highlighting in this context that the share of Middle East Airlines (MEA) dropped from 46.54% of the total number of flights in the first eight months of 2025 to 46.43% by end of August 2026. This is further sketched in the section below: