Northern Lebanon airport revival brings economic hope for the region 

Beirut, Lebanon – On June 6, Lebanon’s second airport received a flight carrying a number of officials, including Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

For decades, Lebanon has had to rely on what was the country’s sole airport, just south of Beirut. But the June 6 flight marked the reopening of the Rene Mouawad Airport in the northern Lebanese town of Qlayaat, which officials hope will be a second hub for the country’s international travel, with prospective flights to Dubai, Istanbul, and a second location in Turkiye.

“The opening flight was a ceremonial flight, and it’s a milestone for sure,” Mazen Sammak, president of the Private Pilot Association of Lebanon, told Al Jazeera. “But the challenge lies in the next phases because [turning] a ceremony to reality has many challenges.”

More work to be done

The airport in Qlayaat, named after former Lebanese President Rene Mouawad, was originally intended to receive passengers around midyear. But Israeli attacks have led to delays as the Lebanese state’s attention turned towards the fallout of the war.

Since March 2, Israel has killed 3,826 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1.2 million. A third effort at a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was announced earlier this week, and since then, many Lebanese have started to venture home.

In November 2024, after a year of Israeli attacks on Lebanon, the World Bank estimated Lebanon needed about $11bn for reconstruction and recovery. Lebanon has suffered at least another $3bn in war-related losses during Israel’s latest intensification of the conflict since March, though the figure is likely much higher.

Any project that could lead to an economic boost is therefore welcome, particularly in northern Lebanon, one of the country’s poorest and most underserved regions.

Qlayaat is six kilometres (3.7 miles) from the Syrian border and would serve that region, as well as major Syrian cities like Homs and the Syrian coast.

In fact, experts told Al Jazeera, the change of regime in Syria in December 2024 has provided an impetus for the airport project, as Syria’s former Assad government had been opposed to the idea, with some speculating that it did not want competition for its own domestic airports.

But with new governments in both Syria and Lebanon – Salam came to power in Lebanon in 2025 – plans for this airport progressed rapidly. The hopes now are that, within three months or so, the airport will serve smaller planes and low-cost airlines.

Sammak said that within the first year, the airport could serve approximately 115,000 passengers and reach 600,000 by the fourth year.

“We are still in the rehabilitation phase, which should take around three months from now,” he said. Over the next three months, the airport will need to install a temporary terminal, areas for baggage handling, security screening, and check-in counters.

“You don’t even have a bathroom there right now,” Sammak said, adding that three destinations have been confirmed to land at Qlayaat: Istanbul, Dubai, and Mersin in Turkiye.

A second airport – for Israel to destroy?

The opening of a second airport in Lebanon has led some in the country to fear that Israel may destroy Beirut airport, which is surrounded by the city’s southern suburbs – known as Dahiyeh.

Dahiyeh was badly damaged during 2024 and 2026, as Israel attacked Hezbollah targets in the area.

Israel struck Beirut airport in the 2006 war with Hezbollah, and while Israel did not attack it in the most recent conflict, fears persist that it may decide to do so in the future.

But Sammak dismissed the notion that the government’s actions had anything to do with Israel’s attacks.

“I think that Israel will not wait for the Lebanese government to operate another airport [so that it can] hit Beirut International Airport,” he said. “We look at this [Rene Mouawad] airport as an economic catalyst and as a contingency.”

Sammak said that if Israel did want to harm Lebanon, it could hit both the airports in Beirut and Qlayaat, instead of just one.

“They can hit any economic facility in Lebanon, like [in 2006] they did when they hit all the bridges, all around Lebanon, even in the northern areas,” he said. “So no one can stop Israel from doing so. But for now, I don’t see any relation between [the progress of Rene Mouawad Airport and Israel’s attacks].”

In the meantime, Sammak said the focus has shifted to getting the airport prepared for receiving passengers: finishing the terminal, securing new routes, and acquiring safety certificates. But he warned against attempts by political forces to plant their own people in the airport project, as has happened in other government projects in the post-civil war (1975-1990) era.

“Experts are needed, not anyone can handle those issues; we need experts in the field,” he said. “And I hope that politics will not interfere in assigning non-reliable or non-expert people in this, and this cannot be done by politically assigned people. We need real experts who have the capabilities and independence to do so.”