Airport activity has been returned after a long stagnation in the industry mainly due to outbreak of the pandemic. In fact, increasing air transport demand in Lebanon was not only coming from family reunions in this summer. It was also about some leisure traveler, primarily driven by the competitor cost effective exchange rate. Consequently, the number of Beirut’s International airport passengers went up by 65.27%, as it recorded 2.64 million (M) passengers in August 2021 compared to 1.59M passengers during the same period last year.
The breakdown of the airport’s statistics revealed that total arrivals added 78.31% year-on-year (YOY) to hit 1.29 million by August 2021. By the same token, the number of departing passengers climbed by a yearly 58.12% to reach 1,297,533 over the same period. Meanwhile, transit passengers decreased from 53,296 by August 2020 to 52,083 passengers by August 2021.
In addition, data on occupancy as per E&Y benchmark survey revealed that the occupancy rate in Beirut’s 4- and 5-star hotels reached 33% by May 2021, up from last year’s registered 19% during the same period. Furthermore, the average room rate has increased by 318.2% from $77 in May 2020 to $324 in May 2021, which led to an upsurge in RevPAR (Revenue per available room) growth of 4,243.6% during the same period; from $4 to $162 in May 2021. Important to mention, that the increase is inflated by valuing the room rates at the official exchange rate of LBP 1,500 for USD.
Beirut’s Airport Activity By August
Source: Beirut International Airport, BlomInvest