Lebanon’s second airport could receive passengers by summer, officials say

Beirut, Lebanon – The government has moved forward with plans to reopen Rene Mouawad International Airport in Qlayaat in northern Lebanon, and officials say it may begin operations this summer.

The airport has been a highly politicised topic for years as economic and social concerns at times have taken a backseat to sectarian arguments for and against it.

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But officials and experts told Al Jazeera that political opposition has largely dimmed in recent months. The project is being heavily backed by the government with Lebanon’s transportation minister set to take part in a demonstration flight in the coming weeks.

Officials and experts also said the airport, located 6km (3.7 miles) from the Syrian border, could serve large parts of Syria and Lebanon and provide an economic reprieve to a region with some of Lebanon’s most economically disadvantaged people.

[image by Al Jazeera]

A site where history was made

Built in the 1930s, Qlayaat airport was later turned into a military airfield by the French army. In the 1960s, it was used for civilian purposes, mainly transporting engineers and other employees between Lebanon and other Arab countries.

From 1988 to 1990 during one of the most brutal periods of the Lebanese Civil War, many of the roads from Beirut to other parts of the country were closed by militias. To get around this, Middle East Airlines, Lebanon’s national carrier, began operating flights between Beirut and Qlayaat.

“It used to cost 25,000 Lebanese lira,” or about $50 at the time, Mazen Sammak, president of the Private Pilot Association of Lebanon, told Al Jazeera from his offices in downtown Beirut. “I remember very well because I took that flight many times.”

On November 5, 1989, Lebanon’s Parliament met at the Qlayaat airport to hold a historic session. Lawmakers ratified the Taif Agreement, which led to the end of the Lebanese Civil War. It also re-elected Hussein al-Husseini as speaker of parliament and Rene Mouawad as president of the republic.

Mouawad, however, was killed 17 days later by a car bomb in Beirut planted by unknown assailants. The airport was then renamed in his memory as the Rene Mouawad International Airport.

Since then, the airport has been used mostly by the Lebanese Air Force.

No more political opposition

Discussions about reopening the airport for passenger planes have emerged every so often, particularly during periods of war.

During Israel’s war on Lebanon in 2024, departing and incoming flights to Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport at times flew past the smoke rising from Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs. This led some in Lebanon to demand a second airport away from areas associated with the political and military group Hezbollah.

Some supporters of opening a second airport accused Hezbollah of controlling Beirut’s international airport and importing arms and money there. Airport employees affiliated with Hezbollah were reportedly removed from that airport in April.

Protesters have also at times blocked the airport road, including Hezbollah supporters who have protested against the group’s disarmament.

Some discussions around the airport have also turned sectarian. During the civil war, a civilian airport began operating out of Halat near the city of Byblos. The Los Angeles Times ran a story in March 1987 with the headline “Christians Want Own Airport: In Warring Lebanon, No Happy Landings.”

“What I find quite revealing in this debate is that it is symptomatic that debates of public policy in Lebanon never take into consideration technical pros and cons of the issue at stake but very rapidly take a sectarian turn,” Karim Emile Bitar, a Lebanese political analyst, told Al Jazeera. “This airport has been discussed for the past 30 years. There are many solid arguments in favour of having a second airport in Lebanon.”

“The problem is some rabid sectarian Lebanese insist on turning this issue into a sectarian debate and saying this would be the Christian airport as opposed to an airport in west Beirut, where Hezbollah has long been the dominant force,” Bitar said.

He recalled the civil war days when rival militias aimed to carve Lebanon into sectarian cantons. “This is why some people still view the opening of another airport as a potential step in the fragmentation of Lebanon.”

Hezbollah was among the political factions opposed to the opening of a second airport in Qlayaat or elsewhere in the north. They argued it was a means of dividing Lebanon. But that political opposition seems to have faded in recent months.

“The airport has economic and developmental benefits, but there is no political opposition,” Qassem Kassir, a journalist close to Hezbollah, told Al Jazeera. “It is necessary and beneficial.”

Other critics have questioned whether the management of the airport is financially sustainable and whether it would divert traffic away from Beirut.

Experts and officials seemed optimistic that a viable and sustainable solution was available, likely through a public-private partnership to manage the airport sometime in the near future.

Experts also told Al Jazeera that a second airport would, if anything, boost the importance of Beirut.

“It might make more traffic for Beirut,” Captain Mohammad Aziz, head of Lebanon’s Regulatory Authority for Civil Aviation, told Al Jazeera. “More airports mean more job attraction.”

“If we want to think at the national level, at the interest of the nation, having another airport creates resilience,” Sammak said. “Because in any stable country, you should have another airport.”

Flying soon

With the political arguments now largely settled, officials familiar with the effort to reopen Qlayaat’s airport said passengers could be flying in and out as soon as this summer.

“Nothing is holding it back. We just need to make sure it is ready for civilian operations,” Aziz said. “We need a couple of months to adjust the runway and to build a building to receive civilians.”

He said the government’s goal is to get the airport operational as soon as possible and then to start receiving tenders on a public-private partnership.

Aziz estimated that a demonstration flight could land at Rene Mouawad International Airport as early as April. If all goes to plan, the airport could start receiving jet aircraft like Embraer 190s or Airbus A220s, which seat 108 to 133 passengers and have a flight time of about five hours.

With this flight time, Aziz said, flights could go as far as Madrid. “In five hours, you can fly from Beirut to London,” he said. “Flights from Beirut are mainly short flights. The MEA [Middle East Airlines] average flight is around 2 hours and 30 minutes.”

Reports in Lebanese media indicated that Rene Mouawad International might become Lebanon’s hub for regional and international low-cost airlines. Currently, a few low-cost airlines such as Turkiye’s Pegasus and Transavia, based in the Netherlands, fly to Beirut.

The second airport’s location in Qlayaat, an area in Akkar, one of Lebanon’s poorest and most underserved regions, could also bring an economic boon to the region, officials and experts said.

“Airports are what we call economic multipliers,” Sammak said. “One job in aviation can create several jobs in other domains like logistics, tourism and hospitality. For such a deprived area for many years like Akkar in the north of Lebanon, this is a very important step because it will create job opportunities for everyone, and it will force the development of the area to make this airport ready.”

He added that the potential infrastructure development and job possibilities would create “social equilibrium” and reduce migration from Lebanon’s underserved north to Beirut.

“This balance is very important because it keeps families together,” he said. “It has many positive social impacts as well.”

The airport also has the potential to serve Syria’s coast. In fact, economists said it would likely have to serve Syria and Lebanon to be economically viable. Asked if contact had begun with Syrian authorities, Aziz said talks with Syria have been initiated and “are on the right track”.

With the government’s backing and political opposition no longer a hurdle, officials are confident about the airport’s viability and the potential for development in northern Lebanon.

“When political will and decision-making align, dreams become reality,” Aziz said. “We are going to make sure dreams become reality.”