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

9 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.

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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

Instagram Redraws Its Wordmark And The Internet Reads “Instagzam”

Instagram’s first wordmark refresh in a decade arrives with new fonts, a restrained gradient — and a Reddit verdict of sidegrade.

Published

4 days ago

August 14, 2026

Nour Nasir

Instagram

Although Instagram’s famous camera icon hasn’t changed, the company has refreshed the handwritten wordmark at the top of its app. This is the first redesign we’ve seen in ten years, and one the internet promptly set about renaming.

“The wordmark at the top of the app hasn’t changed in 10 years, so it was time for a refresh,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote in a post on August 13, describing the new version as “cleaner and more modern” while keeping references to the original design.

Instagram says its team explored hundreds of options — all-caps lettering, camera-inspired concepts, even literal handwriting — before returning to script. “Script reflects individuality, so referencing that felt right,” Instagram director of product design Jasmine Probst said in Meta’s announcement. “The new wordmark is bolder and simpler, with touches of unexpectedness. It cues individual expression, a personal voice, both of which have always been core to Instagram”.

The wordmark is part of a broader brand overhaul: an updated Instagram Sans typeface, two new fonts — the hand-drawn Instagram Pen and Instagram Mono — plus refreshed motion and layouts, and more restrained use of the signature gradient. The wordmark is rolling out globally now, with the rest arriving throughout 2026 and beyond.

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The design mixes cursive and print lettering, some characters connected and others floating free. That hybrid approach, combined with unusually shaped “s” and “r” characters, led some users to conclude the logo actually reads “Instagzam”. On the r/logodesign subreddit, one user said the wordmark looked “fan-made,” like something built in Canva; another called it “an unsettling mix of manuscript and cursive”; a third summarized it as a “sidegrade” — or, inevitably, a “zidegrade”.

Not everyone was hostile to the new look. Some found the half-cursive design stylish and surprisingly readable, while others called it an improvement on its predecessor, and one commenter argued Instagram was simply adopting minimalist branding later than everyone else. Either way, the platform now has a refreshed identity, three updated fonts, and an unofficial new pronunciation.