This paper explores the rise of Beirut as a regional commercial aviation hub in the 1950 and 1960s and it impact on the development of the international tourism industry in Lebanon. This story is defined by the intersection of the global politics of commercial aviation as they incorporated the Middle East, dominated by rise of American commercial airlines, and the evolution of Middle East Airlines (MEA) that becomes the leading carrier across the Middle East until its operations are disrupted by regional conflicts. The development of commercial aviation in the region referred to as the ‘aerial crossroad of the world’ relied heavily on US war-time and early post war efforts to build facilities, provide equipment, and offer training. US flag carriers developed operations in the region as part of their construction of global networks, with TWA passing though Cairo and PanAm through Beirut. While Cairo has developed as a war-time travel center, by the by the mid-1950s, Beirut emerged a leading hub due to the vast expansion of MEA operations and network and PanAm’s global dominance. Drawing on economic affairs periodicals, aviation & tourism trade publications, government documents, the PanAm archives in Miami, FL, and published memoirs this paper situation the rise of Beirut as a travel hub within the ‘end of empire’ politics of commercial aviation that saw the eclipse of British imperial air dominance in the face of the US effort to build an ‘empire of the air.’ Rather than serving as a prestige national symbol, like other state-owned airlines in the region, MEA skillfully negotiated between US, UK, and French airlines to access the capital, equipment, and training to sustain it highly profitable, vast expansion across the region. Both MEA and Beirut airport, which hosted more other airlines than any other in the region, were positioned to exploit both the expansions of leisure and business travel from Europe and the growth of travel to/from the oil-rich Gulf. The paper argues that much of economic expansion and image of Lebanon as destination for the cosmopolitan jet-set was enabled by the dynamics of commercial aviation development that expanded aeromobility for residents and visitors of the region. While Beirut airport and MEA remained resilience throughout the 1958 crisis, numerous hijacking, and the 1969 Israeli bombing of the airport and destruction of half the MEA fleet, with the outbreak of the 1975 civil war its years of expansion were ended.