Lebanon
Airport Guides

Operating Detail

Lebanese airport briefings

The notes behind the airport choice, written by the desk that files the paperwork.

Operating into Lebanon

What is different about flying a private jet into Lebanon

Lebanon starts and ends with one airport. Beirut Rafic Hariri International is the only civil airport in the country, so a flight into Lebanon is a flight into Beirut, and a flight that cannot land at Beirut leaves the country. Every plan the desk writes for Lebanon is therefore two plans: the Beirut file, and the alternate across the water at Larnaca with the fuel to reach it. The airport itself is generous, three runways up to 12,467 feet at 87 feet elevation on the coast, open 24 hours with customs and immigration at all hours, a dedicated general aviation terminal since 2005, and Jet A-1 through the handlers. Lebanon runs on Eastern European Time, UTC+2 in winter and UTC+3 in summer.

The permit is the work. A landing permit and an airport parking slot are both mandatory for private and charter flights, issued through the Lebanese Directorate General of Civil Aviation around a specific schedule and valid for 24 hours. The file carries the full schedule, entry and exit points and routing, crew details with passport copies, and the aircraft documents: registration, airworthiness, insurance, noise certificate and radio licence, with the AOC for a charter operator and none for a private aircraft. The DGCA keeps daytime hours, so the desk files on the first working day the dates are known and treats a schedule change as a new permit.

Handling goes through the general aviation terminal, with Cedar Jet Center, Executive Aircraft Services, Sky Lounge and Optimal Lebanese Business Aviation among the agents, and the desk appoints one with the permit, the slot and the fuel. The runways take widebody airliners daily, so the aircraft is never the constraint; Middle East Airlines is based on the field and the scheduled traffic is the best day-to-day indicator that the airport is operating normally.

The constraint that catches crews out is the region. Lebanese airspace, the notices in force and the insurance position change with the situation next door, and a plan that was routine a month ago can need war risk cover, a different routing or a different day. The desk checks the current notices, the operator's cover and the scheduled carriers before it quotes, plans the Larnaca alternate on every file, and says plainly when a sector should wait.

Send the dates, the aircraft, the passenger list and the routing as early as you have them, with the aircraft documents and the crew passports. The desk files the Lebanese permit and the parking slot together, holds Larnaca as the alternate with the fuel, appoints the handler and the uplift, and comes back with the permit reference and the local times confirmed at both ends.

Facts checked against the Lebanese Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport publications and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation permit requirements, plus Icarus Jet operations data.