Lebanese travel agents describe chaos amid surge in demand for tickets out of Beirut

Iraqi Airways is latest airline to suspend flights to and from Lebanon until further notice

Middle East Airlines is currently the only airline still operating in and out of Beirut. AFP

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Intensified Israeli air strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon have created a surge in people desperate to leave the increasingly dangerous areas. Trapped in an escalating conflict, thousands of residents are struggling to flee the violence, which has already claimed more than 700 lives and left more than 100,000 displaced.

The strikes, which have obliterated infrastructure and disrupted communications, have prompted around 118,000 people to move to safer areas, despite diminishing options. The air strikes follow previous Israeli attacks in which thousands of pagers and walkie talkies owned by Hezbollah blew up, killing dozens and injuring thousands.

Limited routes

Mira Ali, a travel agent in Beirut told The National that she is working around the clock to get tickets for customers fleeing the conflict as well as those trapped outside the country.

“It is chaos,” Ms Ali said. “I have many people calling me to get them a ticket out of Beirut and I can’t accommodate them as all airlines suspended their flights. The only operating airline now is Middle East. I also have customers trapped in Turkey. They were away on vacation or for a business trip."

An alternative option, said Ms Ali, was to cross the land border to Syria, or to head to the port in Tripoli to book a ferry to Mersin in Turkey. “There are boats to either Turkey or Cyprus. People who want to go to Cyprus need to have a visa while people going to Turkey can get a visa on arrival,” she added.

Iraqi Airways was the latest airline to suspend flights to Lebanon until further notice, stating on social media that the cancellation of the route was due to the "deteriorating situation in Lebanon".

Meanwhile, the UK Foreign Office told British citizens still in Lebanon to “leave now”, while on Saturday the European Commission and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued conflict zone information bulletins (CZIBs), recommending that airlines avoid operating within the airspaces of Lebanon and Israel “at all flight levels”.

Fully booked

Christel Majdalani, director of the Nakhal travel agency, said she was also feeling a sense of panic from customers. “There is a sort of panic as many people want to travel outside Lebanon. We have many customers calling for tickets but it's fully booked on Middle East [Airlines] from Beirut to Dubai until October 10,” Ms Majdalani said.

The agency also has customers trapped outside Lebanon who will have to wait for tickets to become available so they can return. “We have customers in Turkey and other countries with booked tickets but many airlines suspended flights. We managed to make a booking for them but they have to wait for a couple of days. The amount of people who want to leave Lebanon is more than the people who want to return.”

Ms Majdalani explained that the agency is arranging buses from Beirut to Amman to transport passengers, with tickets priced at $125, according to the company's instagram account. “We started the route [on Friday]. We have one bus every day and are planning to have more."

'I don't know what to do'

Reema Khalil, a 40-year-old single mother of two, is among those looking to leave, in her case to stay with her sister in Turkey.

“It is terrifying,” she told The National. “I’m staying in my apartment in Beirut with my two kids and don’t know what to do. I want to leave the country and go to Turkey but couldn’t get a ticket. My children are 11 and nine and they are scared from the sounds of bombing.”

Ms Khalil, who works as auditor, said she knew people willing to leave through land borders to Syria and then travel to other countries. “I don’t know if I can financially afford to stay outside Lebanon for a long time as we don’t know when all of this will end.

I’m afraid to leave and be trapped outside my country because then I will lose my job,” she added. “My only option is to go to a safer area in Lebanon, but I don’t know where to go.”

On Saturday, Hezbollah confirmed the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah, hours after Israel announced it had killed him in an air strike in Beirut on Friday. Meanwhile, Ettie Higgins, Unicef's deputy representative in Lebanon, said “thousands and thousands” of people had fled southern Beirut, and hospitals were “overwhelmed”.

Mahmoud Ahmed, a 48-year-old Lebanese man who arrived in Dubai last week on a visitor visa, said he was planning to stay for 10 days but doesn’t know how he will manage to get back.

“People in Lebanon are seeing things being escalated and some left a couple of days ago. I came for a short business trip but don’t know what I should do now,” Mr Ahmed told The National.

“Middle East Airlines is still operating flights from Dubai to Beirut but I don’t know if it will be cancelled in the coming days. I’m a bit confused about whether to stay or return."

He said the recent conflict reminded him of the 34-day war in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Golan Heights in 2006, during which he left Lebanon to go to Jordan for safety. “In that time, we reached my aunt's house in Jordan after 16 hours of travelling through land borders,” he added. “People now can only escape via Syria, or the lucky ones might get a flight ticket.”