5 days ago
Rassamny promises 'radical solutions' to power Beirut's airport
After RHIA experienced a power outage lasting several hours, likely caused by the ongoing heat wave affecting Lebanon, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced Wednesday that Public Works and Transport Minister Fayez Rassamny is working closely with Energy and Water Minister Joe Saddi and Électricité du Liban to "address the repercussions of the outage and implement radical solutions to ensure a stable and reliable energy supply."
Since Tuesday, online reports have documented temporary outages of power and air conditioning at RHIA. A video posted on the " Instagram page, affiliated with the Saudi news network Al-Arabiya, showed long lines of people suffering from the heat at the airport, sparking criticism in the comments section.
"Like every summer..." one user commented, while another wrote: "No generator? Even with the most expensive tickets, the service is the worst." Others, however, downplayed the severity of the incident. One user noted that she had just been at the airport and that "everything went off without a hitch."
RHIA experiencing 'busiest season' of the year
Civil Aviation confirmed the outage Wednesday, emphasizing that it happened "in the midst of a heat wave and as the airport is seeing its busiest travel season of the year."
The outage impacted air conditioning capacity during a period when departures reached nearly 20,000 passengers per day, almost twice last month's average, while arrivals are around 14,000 per day.
This coincides with the departure of many pilgrims to Iraq for 'Arbaeen,' marking 40 days after the commemoration of Ashura — the anniversary of Caliph Hussein's death, grandson of Prophet Muhammad and the third Shiite imam.
On this occasion, "around 12,000 people were expected to depart this week and scheduled to return at the end of the week, in addition to the arrival of about 8,000 Iraqi tourists, taking advantage of offers launched by airlines to fill inbound flights," the statement continued.
"Faced with this exceptional pressure on airport facilities, the public works and transport minister is 'closely coordinating' with his colleague from the energy and water minister and the public supplier EDL 'to address the repercussions of the outage and implement radical solutions that ensure a stable and reliable energy supply.'"
Additionally, the Directorate General expressed its "regrets for any inconvenience or delay caused to passengers or airport staff" and affirmed its "cooperation with relevant authorities to ensure the stability of operations at the airport," while praising the "patience" of travelers and the "exceptional efforts" of RHIA staff and members of the various security services.
