Claims of bribery at Beirut airport denied

BEIRUT: The Lebanese civil aviation authority has denied reports claiming that a passenger at Rafic Hariri International Airport bribed an official to facilitate his travel.
The Lebanese Al-Nahar daily had reported on its website that some airport officials tried to take advantage of overcrowding at the airport and that a passenger claimed officials asked for bribes to expedite travel procedures.
The passenger alleged that one of the officials initially demanded $1,000, then came down to $200, plus $50 for his superior. In another case, the “facilitator” took $150 from a passenger to accelerate his travel procedures.
On Monday, the airport was extremely overcrowded as shown in photos shared on social media.
Mohammed Chehabeddine, director general of the civil aviation authority, said: “There are three reasons for overcrowding — there are 16,000 pilgrims leaving for Saudi Arabia over three to four days; this is the season for visiting Najaf (Iraq); and there are passengers traveling to their work destinations outside Lebanon.”
He added: “Moreover, there is also the movement of charter flights, and the fact that Syrian and Gulf passengers use Beirut airport … All these factors contributed to the exceptional overcrowding never witnessed before at the Beirut airport.”
Rejecting the bribery claim, Chehabeddine said: “Who was the bribe paid to? This claim targets the (reputation of) the security authorities.”
The airport receives 6 million passengers every year. The number of passengers traveling through the airport in July reached 1 million, according to airport statistics.
The Committee for Public Works, Transport, and Energy, chaired by Mohamed Qabbani, met on Tuesday to discuss “the enormous number of pilgrims which the airport witnessed.”
Lebanese Minister of Public Works and Transport Youssef Fenianos visited the civil aviation authority and told journalists: “Beirut airport can accommodate 4-5 million passengers. These numbers multiplied due to many factors.”
However, “the record numbers of pilgrims and expatriates, and the delays in issuing Hajj visas at the Saudi Embassy aggravated the problem.”
Fenianos said that “despite a large number of travelers, no breach of security was reported. A record number of 345 planes departed on Monday.”
However, he acknowledged that “the airport needs an expansion … because it cannot handle this large number of passengers.”