BEIRUT: The number of passengers using Rafik Hariri International Airport surged by half a million in the first eight month of 2017 compared to the same period of last year, the National News Agency said Tuesday.

According to the statistics, the number of passengers up to August of this year stood at 5,538,185.

In August alone the number of passengers increased by 17 percent to reach 1 million.

The agency said that all indications show that this trend is likely to grow until the end of this year.

Officials expect the number of passengers using Beirut airport to exceed 6 million.

However, the airport’s capacity is only 6 million passengers and this has prompted the civil aviation to urge the government to expand the terminals and build more runways to accommodate more planes.

Public Works and Transport Minister Youssef Fenianos, who toured the airport, last week, told reporters that this vital facility can no longer cope with huge number of passengers, adding that many parts of the terminal need urgent renovation.

He added that the revenues generated by the airport are sufficient to gradually expand the terminal.

The NNA said that the number of arrivals in the month of August of this year increased by 21.5 percent to reach 603,492. The number of transit increased 277.2 percent to 1,358.

The number of departing passengers in this month increased by 12.12 percent to reach 573,510.

The agency did not give a detailed breakdown of the nationalities of these passengers.

The number of commercial flights in August increased by 8.74 percent compared to the same month of last year.

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