( of
Lebanon , based in
Beirut . It operates scheduled international services in the
Middle East ,
Europe and
Africa and is based at
Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport .
1
Middle East Airlines (MEA) is a member of the
Arab Air Carriers Organization and the
International Air Transport Association . The Airline expressed its interest in becoming a SkyTeam Associate Member in early
2006 at a press conference in
New York and the process should be completed by early
2008 .
Skyteam Press release
Middle East Airlines was founded on
May 31 ,
1945 by
Saeb Salam , with operational and technical support from
BOAC , with three de Havilland DH.89A Rapides. Operations started on
January 1 ,
1946 with a service between
Beirut and
Nicosia , followed by flights to
Iraq ,
Egypt ,
Syria , and
Cyprus . Two
Douglas DC-3 s were acquired in mid-1946.
Pan Am acquired a stake and management contract in September
1949 .
-200 landing]]
Pan Am was replaced when BOAC acquired 49% of MEA's shares in
1955 . A
Vickers Viscount was introduced in October 1955 while an
Avro York cargo aircraft was leased in June
1957 . On
December 15 ,
1960 , the first of four
De Havilland Comet 4Cs arrived. After the association with BOAC ended on
August 16 ,
1961 , MEA was merged with
Air Liban on
June 7 ,
1963 which gave
Air France a 30% holding, since relinquished. The full title was then Middle East Airlines Air Liban.
In 1963 MEA also took over Lebanese International Airways. The fleet was modernised with the addition of three
Sud Aviation Caravelle s, in April
1963 ; three
Boeing 720 Bs, in January
1966 ; one leased
Vickers VC10 , in March
1967 ; and a number of
Boeing 707-320C s, from November
1967 .
The present title was adopted in November 1965 when the airline was completely merged with Air Liban. Although operations were interrupted by the
1967 Arab-Israeli War , MEA restarted by acquiring a
Convair CV-990A from
American Airlines , which entered service on
June 24 1969 . A
Boeing 747-200B entered service in June
1975 on the Beirut -
London route. Operations were interrupted again until
1990 , until the political situation stabilised.
Airbus A310-300 s were acquired in
1993 and
1994 , followed by an
A321-200 and an
A330-200 , (which replaced the A310s). The airline was restructured in
2001 .
On ,
2006 .
The airline will introduce self check-in kiosks at Beirut's international airport and launch the
Arabesk regional alliance with six other Arab carriers. They will be floating 10 to 20% of their shares in the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) as part of long-term plans to fully privatize the airline.
The airline is majority owned by the
Banque Du Liban (99.37%) and employs 2,437 staff (at March
2007 ).
Middle East Airlines operates to the following international scheduled destinations:
MEA should begin flying daily to
Frankfurt and "most probably" will add
Moscow and
Khartoum as destinations.
{Link without Title} .
MEA used to serve
{Link without Title} -
Aden ,
Addis Ababa ,
Amsterdam ,
Ankara ,
Baghdad ,
Bahrain ,
Benghazi ,
Bombay ,
Brussels ,
Colombo ,
Darwin ,
Dhahran ,
Freetown ,
Karachi ,
Khartoum ,
Kuala Lumpur ,
Monrovia ,
Nicosia ,
New York ,
Sao Paulo ,
Singapore ,
Sydney ,
Tehran ,
Vienna ,
Zurich .
Some of the above were added/dropped post 1990.
The MEA fleet consists of the following aircraft as of May 2007:
- During an interview with MEA Chairman Mr. Mohamad El-Hout in March 2007 , he indicated that the airline has four Airbus A330s and four A319s (converted to A320) on order and that they will start taking delivery of these aircraft in June 2008.
- On June 27, 2007, Middle East Airlines announced it will be taking a $60,000,000 loan from Lebanese banking company Fransabank to purchase two Airbus A320 s, and the loan must be paid off in 10 years.
Middle East Airlines (MEA) fully owns the following subsidiaries, although they are operated independently.
::Operates and maintains Beirut's International Airport from cleaning the rest rooms in the terminal to de-rubberizing the runways.
::The dominant ground handling company in Beirut's International Airport handling nearly 80% of all customers. Recently launched Fixed Base Operator services from the new General Aviation Terminal under the name ''Cedar Jet Center''.
::The only fully fledged aircraft maintenance provider in Beirut's International Airport specialized in maintaining Airbus aircraft. The company is PART 145 certified which allows it to carry maintenance on European registered aircraft. Main clients include Cyprus Airways .
