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FIRST LOOK: A 20 Million Passenger Beirut Rafic Hariri Int’l Airport


If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know I’m spending this weekend in Turkey’s Izmir province, with Middle East Airlines (MEA) for their yearly networking event.

The second we got to the delightful Swiss Hotel Izmir, a stone’s throw away from the Aegean Sea, MEA chairman Mohamad El Hout revealed to us several bombshell announcements about MEA’s fleet and headquarters.

  • MEA will purchase 15 new airplanes between 2019 and 2021
  • 11 of the airplanes will be Airbus A321, and the other 4 will be the “wide-body” variants
  • All MEA planes will be equipped with WiFi
  • MEA will now fly directly to Madrid 3 times a week starting June 16, 2018 (Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays) at takeoff and landing times that would be perfect for La Liga fans who want to jet off to watch a game.

Apart from that, MEA will expand its headquarters even further in the area surrounding its recently inaugurated training center. Massive 150x95m hangars will be constructed for maintenance purposes, a green office building and more. You can check out how the MEA campus will look like by 2021 below.

Source: MEA Chairman Mohamad El Hout, Izmir 2018

The Airport Expansion

Being delighted with news of expanding the MEA fleet and getting its passengers connected at cruising altitude, I had loads of questions about the planned expansion for the Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport.

The current capacity of our international airport is around 6 million passengers a year, but in 2017 more than 8.3 million passengers made their way through it.

This has prompted Public Works Minister Youssef Fenianos to begin “urgent expansion” of the airport, allowing it to handle 2 million extra passengers within the next 9 to 12 months. By 2030, the airport is scheduled to welcome 20 million passengers.

Now, after a lot of digging, I was finally able to get the renders of what the Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport will look like, courtesy of MEA and Lebanon’s Public Works minister Youssef Fenianos.

So, I present to you the renders made by Dar Al-Handasah, who won the contract to design the expanded Beirut Rafic Hairir International Airport. You guys are the first to see this outside Dar, the ministry and MEA!


As you can see, the first phase will be adjacent to the seaside runway, and the second phase of the expansion will be on the opposite side flanked by Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The expansions will include additional baggage conveyor belts, inspection stations, power generators, flight docking systems and cooling systems.


Stay tuned for more, I will be following MEA’s fleet expansion, as well as Beirut’s airport expansion over the coming weeks and months.

PPP Plans

Below are screenshots I took from a presentation given by Dr. Omar Kaddouha, Director of Flight Safety at The Lebanese Directorate General of Civil Aviation on March 6, 2018. It was part of a session titled “Showcasing of PPP-Candidate Infrastructure Projects” at the Four Seasons in Beirut last month.

The presentation highlights that the project’s construction and financing will be handled by the private sector, signaling a good example of a PPP project (Public-Private-Partnership).

The government’s job is to manage the project, and make sure the tenders are transparent and have the taxpayers’ best interest heart. It’s also their job to attract financing from the right private sector entities.

The private sector will finance, build, operate and maintain the new terminals (and maybe the entire airport).

Personally, I’m glad this estimated 500 million USD project will not be funded from taxpayer money. I also hope that the private sector being a partner, means more diversity in what’s offered in Beirut’s terminals that doesn’t immediately have to do with airplanes and flight (food, shopping, etc.)

As for where the 20 million passengers will come from, the region is seeing a steady increase of around 5% in air travel, and in Lebanon’s first 2 months in 2018, passenger numbers spiked 10%. So, don’t just think Gulf tourists, think Lebanese expats, layover passengers, Lebanese who are traveling more for leisure and business and tourists from non-traditional locations.

Also, I really hope the tender process next year for the 2 phases is transparent and fair, so that the specter of corruption stays away from this ambitious project. I also hope the airport will be run more efficiently with the private sector operating it. Lastly, I hope the government will cut taxes they keep hiking up on travel, and that prices of tickets outbound from Beirut become more affordable, as more and more people fly more often, with more planes to take them to more destinations, making flight a necessity that’s met efficiently in Lebanon, not just a luxury many struggle to afford.

Phase 1


Phase 2


Special thanks to MEA for inviting me on this trip. It was awesome meeting everyone, exploring this Turkish province that I hadn’t visited before and working on getting this story in tandem. Also, special thanks to my dearest Lea Mehanna for the invaluable help in compiling this, and Nadine Mezher for helping me find a presentation that had extra information from what I was able to gather.

21dB: The Magic Behind Beirut’s 5 Best Clubs


I love to club. Techno is the first (and usually only) word in my bio. Even when I travel, clubbing takes up an important part of my itinerary. When most people would allocate time to shopping and sightseeing touristy attractions, I’d be clocking in dancing hours in whatever city I’m in has got to offer in terms of clubs or festivals.

Berlin, Brooklyn, Barcelona, Amsterdam, San Francisco are just some of the many cities whose clubs and festivals have stayed with me over the years. Beirut is at the top of that list though. It’s the city where it all started, where I discovered Techno and House in the dark spaces of The Basement and B018. It’s also where I feel most at home, where I know and love fellow clubbers, the artists and the people behind the scenes that bring the magic to the nightlife scene in Beirut.

Sound Matters

Over the years, I’ve noticed something special about Beirut’s nightlife. Don’t worry, it’s not the usual orientalist trope that “we club to forget war” or whatever. What I noticed is how much effort club runners put into making their clubs perfect.

The charm in cities like Berlin is that the derelict, half-assed feel of most of the clubs there is compensated by the near endless stream of mind-blowing talent. It’s like the venue is an afterthought to the music, and the experience trumps the sound quality and design. In Beirut, the clubs these days are mostly built up from scratch, designed for a singular purpose: perfect sound for a perfect party. It’s not just an abandoned factory, with a bunch of Funktion Ones distributed around a dark dancefloor. It’s a space made to deliver the absolute best sound, without damaging clubbers’ hearing and without annoying neighbors who would rather be sound asleep.


Beirut’s Lessons

The Garten is a perfect example of Beirut’s obsession with fantastic sound. When you park somewhere on the Beirut Waterfront, the distorted music spills out of venues like Sky Bar, Music Hall and Seven Sisters. However, you don’t really hear what’s happening in The Garten till you’re basically in the queue.

Those of you lucky enough to have a backstage access, will have also experienced the “tunnel” effect at the back of the pyramid. It’s when you’re in the area behind the pyramid, and make your way into the heart of the dance floor, that you understand the effort and work it took to perfect this club’s sound. You can have an actual conversation, with the same voice volume you would at a busy cafe, then a few seconds later, walk into backstage area, arms flailing and feet stomping amid a sea of dancing bodies and super loud music. During that short walk, you’ll notice the virtual absence of sound as you make your way through the tunnel, with the music slowly getting louder, crisper as you get closer to the mouth of the tunnel right behind the DJ booth. It’s important to note that the architecture and design was executed by Archave architects, Karl Karam and Michael Najjar.

All of this is by design, not by mistake. And the folks behind it are 21dB, which are the sound geniuses behind The Garten, Uberhaus, AHM, Reunion and a new mega-club that will open in Beirut later this year.

The way the clubs have been built, the “pyramid” versus the “dome”, the familiar “tunnel effect” feeling while you walk between sections of the venues, is all part of the art and science that goes into designing these clubs for optimal auditory pleasure, without damaging your ears.

I mention the damaging ears part, because after enough hours at Berghain and other clubs, I ended up getting custom-made ear plugs, since I’d hear a whistling, beeping sound for a day or two after leaving the club, which is not a good sign for your auditory health. I never have that problem in Beirut, and the reason is all the effort, planning and execution that goes into the clubs sound design here.

21dB “Behind the Music” Series

The unknown stories of what’s behind the music at your favorite clubs, has finally been documented in a beautifully-made series that kicks off with The Garten this week, and it’s my absolute pleasure to announce and tease it on the blog with you all today! Stay tuned in the next weeks and months for more episodes and stories, all of which will be documented here ❤

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZLXzRgBzaN/?taken-by=ginoraidy

And here’s the FULL first episode!

A Tour Inside Beit Beirut (That Beautiful Old Building on Sodeco That Took Forever to Renovate)


For us, the post-war generation, it’s just that awesome building that took forever to renovate. Beit Beirut though, is one of the only surviving symbols of Lebanon’s Civil War, a war most Lebanese try to forget and never try to come to terms with.

History

It was built in 1924, and was called “The Barakat House”, designed by Youssef Aftimus. It was a posh residential complex, with 8 spacious apartments for Beirut’s middle class families. Shortly after the Lebanese Civil War started, it became a perch for snipers, especially Christian militias, since its strategic location meant controlling the vital Sodeco junction.

In the 1990s, it was supposed to be demolished. However, brilliant Lebanese heritage activists resisted, and after years of advocating and protests, by groups like “Association pour la Protection des Sites et Anciennes Demeures au Liban” (APSAD), the decision to demolish it was reversed, and instead, its ownership was transferred to the Beirut Municipality.

After partnering up with the French Embassy in Beirut, and the Paris Municipality, the building was renovated and became part of a huge complex that would house a library, a museum and urban cultural center on the former, bloody demarcation line between East and West Beirut. Despite several years delay, Beit Beirut is ready, but the usual political indecisiveness means that it’s still not open to the public except on rare occasions. Until now…

Photos From Our Visit























What MARCH is Planning in April

We’ve been hard at work in some of Beirut’s most neglected neighborhoods for the past few months. In mid-April, around the date of the start of the Lebanese Civil War, MARCH will present the culmination of these many months of hard work. I won’t say more now, but it’ll be a chance for the public to come and see this magical, beautifully renovated place, as well see what we’ve been up to in our beloved capital.

Stay tuned for more, and follow me on Instagram for more pics like this!

https://www.instagram.com/ginoraidy/