The Director of Civil Aviation at Rafic Hariri International Airport Fadi Al-Hassan denied the rumors that has been circulated about suspending commercial flights between the UAE and Lebanon.

Al-Hassan stressed that “these are just fake rumors.”

He added that “cargo flights between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia have been suspended, but passenger flights have not been affected.”

On the other hand, OMT Chairman, Toufic Moawad, assured that money transfers from all Arab Gulf countries are continuing, especially from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon, stressing the flexibility of transfers and their high frequency in the past few days.

In an interview with Al-Modon, Moawad asserted that OMT has not yet been notified of any decision by any party to halt money transfers.

Moawad affirmed that remittances from the Gulf countries increased in the past two days, stating that the volume of transfers from the Gulf region to Lebanon through financial transfer institutions amounted to $1.5 million per day, which is equal to $45 million per month or $540 million per year.

The value of remittances through money transfer companies (OMT and others) daily constitutes a maximum of one third of the total value of remittances from the world. As for the value of financial transfers from all countries to Lebanon through money transfer companies (OMT), it amounts to about $1.35 billion.

The money transfers for the Lebanese from Saudi Arabia are estimated by the Lebanese-Saudi Business Council at $4.5 billion annually, half of which come from the Lebanese community in Saudi Arabia. Total transfers are done through Lebanese banks and through financial transfer institutions (OMT and others) or carried directly through the airport with passengers.