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Middle East Airlines

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Middle East Airlines Air Liban
IATA
ME		 ICAO
MEA		 Callsign
CEDAR JET
Founded 1945
Hubs Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport
Frequent flyer program Cedar Miles
Member lounge Cedar Lounge
Alliance SkyTeam (Applied for Associate Member status sponsored by Air France, expected in 2008)
Fleet size 9 (+10 orders)
Destinations 26
Parent company Middle East Airlines / Air Liban SAL
Headquarters Beirut, Lebanon
Key people Mohammad El-Hout (CEO)
Website: http://www.mea.com.lb

Middle East Airlines (MEA) (Arabic: طيران الشرق الأوسط), also known by its full name Middle East Airlines Air Liban (Arabic: طيران الشرق الأوسط الخطوط الجوية اللبنانية), is the national flag-carrier airline 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 (AACO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA). 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.[2]

Contents

History

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-3s were acquired in mid-1946. Pan Am acquired a stake and management contract in September 1949.

Airbus A330-200 takes off
Airbus A330-200 takes off

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 Caravelles, in April 1963; three Boeing 720Bs, in January 1966; one leased Vickers VC10, in March 1967; and a number of Boeing 707-320Cs, 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 A310-300s 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.

Airbus A330-200 landing
Airbus A330-200 landing

On September 7, 2006, Israel ended its 8-week long air blockade on Lebanon. A Middle East Airlines flight from Paris landed at Rafik Hariri International Airport at 6:06 p.m. local time. MEA resumed regularly scheduled flights on September 11, 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).[1]

Destinations

Middle East Airlines operates to the following international scheduled destinations: [3]

Africa

Europe

Airbus A321-200 lands at London Heathrow Airport
Airbus A321-200 lands at London Heathrow Airport

Middle East

MEA at the Hariri-Beirut International Airport
MEA at the Hariri-Beirut International Airport

Future destinations

MEA is planning to increase Frankfurt service to from 4x weekly to daily as well as increase Amman, Dubai, Cairo, Riyadh, and Jeddah from daily to twice daily. It is also planning to start daily service to Doha and is studying the possibility of adding Moscow, Montreal, Madrid, Zurich, and Khartoum as new destinations. [4]

Fleet

The MEA fleet consists of the following aircraft as of May 2007:

MEA Middle Eastern Airlines Fleet
Aircraft Total Passengers
(First/Economy)		 Notes
Airbus A320-200 (6 orders) Converted from A319
Airbus A321-200 6 149 (31/118) Short-medium haul routes
Airbus A330-200 3
(4 orders)		 250 (42/208) Short-medium haul routes

(Current 3 will be returned after delivery of the 4 new aircraft)
  • 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 (later converted to A320s) 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 A320s, and the loan must be paid off in 10 years.
  • In early October, MEA announced a new modified livery for its fleet as well as an increase of its A320 order from four to six aircraft.

Codeshare agreements

Subsidiaries

Middle East Airlines (MEA) fully owns the following subsidiaries, although they are operated independently.

  • Middle East Airports Services (MEAS)
Operates and maintains Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport from cleaning the rest rooms in the terminal to de-rubberizing the runways.
  • Middle East Airlines Ground Handling (MEAG)
The dominant ground handling company in Beirut's Rafic Hariri 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.
  • Mideast Aircraft Services Company (MASCO)
The only fully fledged aircraft maintenance provider in Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport specializing 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.

References

  1. ^ a b "Directory: World Airlines", Flight International, 2007-04-10, p. 50. 
  2. ^ Skyteam Press release
  3. ^ MEA Route Map
  4. ^ MEA to buy 2 new aircraft with Fransabank financing The Daily Star (28 June 2007).

External links


 •  • e
Members of SkyTeam

Aeroflot • Aeroméxico • Air France • Alitalia • China Southern Airlines • Continental Airlines • Czech Airlines • Delta Air Lines • KLM • Korean Air • Northwest Airlines
Associate members: Air Europa • Copa Airlines • Kenya Airways
Future associate members: MEA • TAROM
 •  • e
Members of the Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO)
 •  • e
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Records Flight airspeed record · Flight distance record · Flight altitude record · Flight endurance record · Most produced aircraft

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Middle East Airlines from Wíkipedia. ©2006 by Wíkipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. View a list of authors or edit this article.

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