Hariri: Expansion of Airport Capacity to Accommodate 5 Million More Passengers

Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced on Wednesday that Lebanon is preparing to increase the capacity of its airport to accommodate five million extra passengers as part of a guideline prepared by the Ministry of Works and based on a donation by the Middle East Airlines.

“Today we have a project to increase the capacity of 5 million extra passengers in an initial and urgent phase, to be completed in the general guideline that the Ministry of Works is preparing, based on a donation by the MEA to the Lebanese government,” said Hariri.

His remarks came at opening ceremony of the Middle East Training and Conferences Center at Rafik Hariri International Airport.

He added: “When the reconstruction of the airport project began (during the term of late ex-PM Rafik Hariri) after the end of the cursed civil war, the airport was receiving less than one and a half million passengers.

“When Rafik Hariri reconstructed it to accommodate 6 million passengers, people asked: Why 6 million passengers, and where will they come from? The result? Last year this airport received more than 7 and a half million passengers,” he added.

“The number this year will be bigger, because in July and August alone, the airport registered more than two million passengers,” noted the PM.

Turning to the MEA and its chairman Mohammed al-Hout, Hariri said: “We are proud that in the era of Mohammed al Hout, this company moved from being a deficit causer for the state to a successful company, flying in the name of Lebanon all over the world.

“From a company that was losing tens of millions after the civil war, threatened to be closed, to a company earning tens of millions a year with accumulated profits that reached under its current management more than one billion dollars, and that builds centers like the one we are inaugurating today, with its modern and sophisticated equipment, which shows how much we all believe in Lebanon’s leading role in the region and the world.”

The PM also concluded by announcing that the hall will be called after the governor of the Central Bank, Riad Salameh, he said: “I am also proud to announce that the beautiful hall in which we gather today, that was known so far as the DOME, is now called Riad Salameh Hall.”