News

Lebanon Sets 2027 Launch Date For Low-Cost “Fly Beirut” Airline

New carrier and airport projects mark a rare attempt to reset Lebanon’s strained aviation network.

Published

10 months ago

November 12, 2025

lebanon sets 2027 launch date for low-cost fly beirut airline

Lebanon has outlined its most ambitious aviation push in years, confirming plans to roll out a low-cost airline, expand Beirut’s main airport, and reopen a long-idle airfield in the north.

The announcement came during the Middle East Airlines (MEA) 80th-anniversary event at Rafic Hariri International Airport. MEA chairman Mohammad Hout said the budget carrier, Fly Beirut, is slated to begin operations in early 2027. The airline will sit under MEA, breaking no monopolies but promising cheaper fares — a long-running grievance for Lebanese expatriates facing steep ticket prices.

Hout said MEA will add six aircraft to its fleet next year and move to restore Beirut’s role as a maintenance hub for foreign airlines. “Plans have been drawn up for the company’s future, starting with restoring Beirut’s role as a maintenance hub for foreign airlines, which will require new facilities,” he told officials, including Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

The carrier’s continued operations during last year’s Israeli strikes, with flights taking off as explosions hit nearby suburbs, intensified calls for a clearer long-term strategy as regional rivals scale up.

Public Works and Transport Minister Fayez Rasamny used the ceremony to set out phased airport works running from 2025 through 2030 and beyond. He said a Fast Track lane is nearing launch to ease passenger movement and expects upgrades to raise capacity by roughly two million travelers a year. “We are not just renovating an airport; we are creating a new travel experience to and from Lebanon,” he said.

Beirut’s airport has struggled with chronic queues and overcrowding, worsened after a 2023 corruption scandal forced the cancellation of a planned Terminal 2. Officials now aim to lift annual passenger capacity to 16 million within the decade, then push toward 20 million.

Also Read: AltoVolo Opens Orders For Limited Edition Sigma eVTOLs

The second part of the overhaul targets the Rene Mouawad Airport in Qleiaat, a former civilian airfield turned military base in the Akkar district. Rasamny said reopening the site would connect northern Lebanon to international routes and support development in one of the country’s poorest regions. An Expression of Interest has drawn more than two dozen proposals from local and foreign companies.

The government expects to award the project early next year. If works proceed, Lebanon could operate two civilian airports for the first time in decades — a shift that may ease pressure on Beirut and give Fly Beirut room to scale once it takes off.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.