BEIRUT, Lebanon, April 17 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanon’s Interior Minister, Raya El Hassan, said Tuesday that, Beirut’s new airport will be opened in June, 2019.
“We will try to launch the new airport within a few months from now, in a bid to facilitate the lives of people travelling through the airport,” Hassan said, during her tour with Public Works and Transportation Minister, Youssef Fenianos, at the airport, to supervise the work being implemented at the location.
Hassan said that the airport should be ready to receive tourists during the summer.
Officials have on many occasions called for expansion of the Rafic Hariri International Airport (RHIA), in addition to buying new equipment for the establishment, in a bid to cater to an increased number of passengers.
Last year, Lebanese Finance Ministry approved 18 million U.S. dollars in funding, for the expansion of RHIA.
The funding came, following a steady increase in the passenger number at the airport, since 2008, according to a study released by the airport’s Research and Studies Department, in March, 2018.
The study predicted that as many as 10 million passengers would travel via the RHIA by 2020, while the airport has the capacity of hosting only six million passengers annually.– NNN-NNA
