Lebanon inaugurates a second international airport amid Israel-Hezbollah war

Qlayaat airport near Syrian border to be converted from airbase to passenger hub as government looks to shift traffic from the Beirut airport, near Hezbollah’s Dahiyeh stronghold

QLAYAAT, Lebanon — Lebanon launched the rehabilitation of its second airport on Saturday, in preparation for an opening within months, at a time when the country faces constant fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.

Lebanon currently has one international airport, in south Beirut next to Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold that has been subjected to heavy Israeli bombardment during successive wars.

The new airport, in the town of Qlayaat in Lebanon’s northernmost province of Akkar, near the border with Syria, has been used as a military base by the Lebanese army for decades.

Lebanese Minister of Transport and Public Works Fayez Rasamny inaugurated the airport on Saturday “after more than fifty years of promises, delays and waiting.”

“Today we are moving from promise to execution,” Rasamny said, adding that the goal is for the airport to be “operational in a few weeks” to serve travelers to Mersin, Istanbul and Dubai, adding there are plans to expand the destinations to Saudi Arabia, Cairo and Athens at a later stage.

Lebanon is also in contact with low-cost airlines, such as Ryanair and Pegasus, he said.

Rehabilitation is due to begin next week and will take at least three months, going through a pilot phase before the airport is put into full service in November 2026, according to local media.

The work is being carried out by the Lebanese company Sky Lounge, which on Saturday posted on its Instagram page a video of a test flight between Beirut airport and Qlayaat airport.

In a speech during the opening ceremony, the company’s chairman, Ziad Munla, said the passenger terminal will be completed “within 90 days after completing the required approvals and licenses.”

The airport will be able to handle about 114,000 passengers in its first year, rising to more than 600,000 by its fourth year, he said.

The opening of the airport aims to create jobs in Akkar, one of Lebanon’s poorest governorates with a high unemployment rate.

Rene Mouawad Airport, named after a former Lebanese president who was elected in the 1980s, was built by the French army as an airstrip in the 1930s.

It was used for civilian purposes in the 1960s and was bombed by Israel during an earlier war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

Beirut airport has continued to operate during the several wars that have struck the country since 2023, only closing briefly during periods of major escalation.

Lebanon has been forced to repeatedly pursue international guarantees that Israel will not target Beirut airport, which it has previously accused Hezbollah of using to transport money and weapons.

Lebanese authorities have repeatedly denied the Israeli allegations, though Beirut has reportedly conducted a large-scale purge of Hezbollah’s presence at the airport, doing enough to even satisfy Israel and the US, according to US and Lebanese officials.

The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the US and Israel attacked its main backer, Iran. Since then, 26 IDF soldiers and one Defense Ministry civilian contractor have been killed in southern Lebanon, 14 of them since a ceasefire was introduced on April 16. Two civilians were also killed by Hezbollah rockets, and an Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed in the north by Israeli artillery shelling.

Israel has thus far refrained from striking Beirut during the current conflict at the request of the White House, which fears it would harm Washington’s efforts to secure a ceasefire extension with Iran — which is conditioning a deal on a truce in Lebanon.