Beirut Airport expansion: Curing crowds and a system failure

Last summer, Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport made headlines when passengers were stuck in lines for hours on end as the crowd grew larger and larger when the facility suffered a system failure.

A month ago, the airport began to work to improve the passenger flow and specifically relieve hardships of Lebanese people traveling to and from this airport.

The first stage of the project of expanding Beirut Airport was recently launched with the addition of more than 38 passport control counters to the Arrivals Hall. Transport Minister Youssef Fenianos and Tourism Minister Avedis Guidanian inaugurated the first stage of this expansion as they toured the general security check-in and arrivals area as well as throughout the airport.

A joint press conference was held at the new Press Hall in the Salon of Honor of the airport to explain the inauguration of the first stage of the expansion project.

Minister Fenianos announced that 14 additional passport control counters had been set up in the arrival terminal and 24 counters were added and that this would be raised to 34 by the end of June. He pointed out that the goal of this new project is to facilitate to the Lebanese a quick arrival to the planes when traveling on holidays or back and forth to their work overseas, but also to facilitate quick arrival for visitors to Lebanon through the airport. He further explained that people who will use that facility could check-in their luggage and have them inspected in that Salon, so they won’t have to arrive earlier for check-in or send their bags ahead of time for check-in.

Minister Guidanian praised the work of the transport minister and all the agencies who cooperated to the success of the project. He promised an excellent summer season, “hoping that we will meet at the end of the summer with another achievement.”