By Wassim Chemaitelli

MEA 's HUB : BEIRUT'S RAFIK HARIRI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (BEY)

Beirut had to wait until 1938 before it had its own airport. Lebanon had indeed been part of the early air routes pioneered in the region since 1913, and air services to Lebanon did exist before 1938, but they depended on the use of seaplanes. The most famous regular air service of that kind was Air Orient's route from France to Indochina. The service became scheduled in 1931. The trip took 7 days, it started in Marseille and ended in Saigon with intermediate stops in Naples (Italy), Kerkyra (Corfu) and Athens in Greece, Castellorosso (Rhodes, administered then by Italy), Beirut and Damascus (under French mandate), Baghdad in Iraq, Bushehr and Jask in Persia, Karachi, Jodhpur, Allahabad and Calcutta in British Crown Colony India, Akyab and Rangoon in Burma and Bangkok, Siam. The first leg from Marseille to Beirut was flown using CAMS 54 seaplanes. Passengers were disembarked at the Minet El Hosn/St Georges Bay wharf in Beirut and continued their journey overland to Damascus from where they caught another plane which flew them eastwards. The journey involved multiple stops and aircraft changes but represented a true revolution in the history of French civil aviation, and gained increasing importance in improving communications whithin the French empire. The route, as well as the sea horse logo (originally designed for Air Orient) were inherited by Air France the carrier which resulted from the merger of all French airlines in 1933.

Tensions in Europe made the route unsafe as of mid-1938. The Italians, who were engaged in an alliance with the German Third Reich, controled the Dodecanese archipelago, including Rhodes, an important stop just before the last stretch to Beirut. Air France had anyway already decided to stop using seaplanes, as it became possible to operate the whole journey from France to Indochina using a single airliner, the Dewoitine 338, by diverting the route southwards towards Tunis, Tripoli (Libya), Benghazi and Alexandria before arriving at Damascus.

During the mandate , the French authorities had engaged in the extension of Beirut's harbour. The consequent works required the use of large quantities of sand, most of which were taken from dunes south of Beirut. This had the effect of reducing these dunes, and of levelling the terrain in this region. The site (which until then was difficult to define because of Beirut's peculiar geological features) for the long awaited airport was thus finally found : Bir Hassan region, south of the city where the dunes stood. Construction works started in 1936 and were completed in 1938.

Beirut Airport's success was immediate, and became part of the ambitious routes of pioneer airlines, like the Warsaw-Teheran route flown by LOT-Polish Airlines and the Berlin-Teheran route of the Deutshe Luft Hansa. Air France re-routed its Indochina service, extended to Hanoi via Beirut. The first Middle Eastern airlines, Misrair (founded in 1932) and Palestine Airways (founded in 1937) also flew to Beirut.  There were days were operations exceeded 30 airliner movements a day, much more than what was initially planned by the mandate authorities. All this came to a brutal stop when World War II erupted in Europe in 1939 involving France, the mandatory power in Lebanon and Syria, in a long and difficult struggle against the German Third Reich.

As Lebanon gained its independence from France in 1943, Beirut Airport became an important part of the young country's communication system. It became the home base of the country's airlines, Middle East Airlines (MEA) and Air Liban, both founded in 1945. As Lebanon's economy expanded, there was a need for a larger and more modern airport. Khaldé, further south of Bir Hassan, 9 Kms from the capital on the Beirut-Saida road was chosen as the site for what was to become the region's biggest and most modern airport. BEY was inaugurated in 1954.

Commemorative stamps, inauguration of Beirut International Airport, April 23rd 1954.

Beirut International Airport (BEY) in Khaldé.
Left: aerial view. Photo: Conseil National du Tourisme au Liban in Liban, Terre de rencontres, Delroisse ed. 1969, Boulogne.
Right: the terminal building and car park. Postcard by Telco-sport, Beirut.

   
As Beirut International Airport was inaugurated, more international carriers were attracted to Lebanon, including Sabena Belgian World Airlines (first Brussels-Frankfurt-Beirut-Stanleyville-Elisabethville flight cover, April 17th 1955) and Deutsche Luthansa (first Hamburg-Frankfurt-Munich-Istanbul-Beirut cover, September 12th 1956). Scandinavian Airlines System also chose Beirut for the inauguration of its jet services, using the Sud-Aviation Caravelle on July 17th 1959 via Rome and Athens.

Beirut International Airport (BEY) rapidly became the Middle Eastern hub for air transport. Lebanon's liberal economy and strategic position attracted business from around the world. Its cultural heritage and the hospitality of its people attracted tourists mostly from Europe and the Arab World. BEY was thus the Middle Eastern airport most international airlines included first in their route network system. The fifties were consolidation years, as BEY was moreover the hub of no less than 4 Lebanese airlines : MEA, Air Liban, Trans Mediterranean Airlines (TMA) and Lebanese International Airways (LIA).

The sixties were the golden age years. Jet age arrived swiftly to BEY on the wings of MEA's Comets. As MEA and Air Liban merged, BEY became the hub of one of the major airlines of the region. The site's section on the March 1968 timetable gives a good idea about the airport's intensive operations. However, in December 1968 BEY was attacked by the Israeli Army in an agression against Lebanese civilian targets in order to revenge the hijack of an Israeli plane in Athens by Palestinian activists. The attack led to the destruction of 13 planes, all exclusively operated by the 3 Lebanese airlines in a move clearly reflecting Israel's deep resentment of Lebanon's success. LIA collapsed after the loss of its two Convair CV-990As, MEA and TMA quickly recovered and flew their jets higher and further than ever. This dramatic event showed however that BEY, Lebanon's economy's showcase, would always be in the heart of any of the potential conflicts of the volatile Middle East.

As war erupted in Lebanon in 1975, BEY wasn't spared by conflicting militias and invading armies. There were frequent closures, the longest having taken place in 1976, 1982, 1987 and 1989-1990. Until 1982, BEY's traffic fluctuated but the airport continued handling significant airliner movements. The airport even underwent some rehabilitation work in 1977. After the 1982 Israeli invasion (which led to the airport's intensive shelling and to the loss of 6 MEA Boeing 720s), the airport became as crippled as the rest of the country's economy. As it fell under the direct control of militias in 1984, the airport became extremely unsafe. In 1985 the hijacking of a TWA Boeing 727 in Rome diverted to BEY and the role the militias based in the airport played during the crisis damaged BEY's reputation forever. The airport as well as MEA were, and still are, under boycot by US authorities, and the only foreign airlines who continued flying to BEY were from Eastern Europe, Jordan and Syria. In 1990 after one of the most severe episodes of war in Lebanon, the conflicting parties came to an agreement in Taef, Saudi Arabia. War was coming into an end, and it was time for BEY's rebirth.

The rebuilding of Beirut International Airport on the same Khaldé site started in 1994 and the first step was achieved in 1998. The second phase was completed in 2000, as BEY was enlarged in order to handle as much as 6 million passengers a year. For more details on the airport's infrastructure and statistics refer to the well documented website of the Direction générale de l'aviation civile. In November 2000, Lebanon's parliament voted in favor of an open-skies policy, hoping that the resulting increase in the BEY's traffic would help the recovery of recession struck Lebanese economy. The airport's activity improved steadily, reaching for the first time pre-war levels in 2003, with 2.8 million passengers. This number increased by an impressive 17% in 2004, reaching 3.35 million passengers. In September 2005, BEY was officially renamed Rafik Hariri International Airport, as a tribute to Lebanon's former prime minister and the role he played in the country's reconstruction.  Despite a promising beginning, 2006 will be remembered for Israeli attacks, mostly against civilian targets in Lebanon,  supposedly in retaliation to the abduction of 2 soldiers by the Hezbolllah militia near the southern border. Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport was among the first targets hit by the Israelis, forcing the closure of the airport on July 13th. The airport's runways were damaged, but traffic was resumed on August 17th 2006 one day after a UN resolution called for the cessation of hostilities in Lebanon.

Beirut International Airport has witnessed the great changes that shook Lebanon from the early years of independence until present. As Lebanon strives for healing its struggling economy, the development of BEY is a cornerstone in the choices made by the successive post war Lebanese cabinets. MEA's destiny was always closely linked to BEY's for better, or worse.
 

Link to the Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile website

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