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Middle East Airlines

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Middle East Airlines – Air Liban S.A.L.
طيران الشرق الأوسط ـ الخطوط الجوية اللبنانية
IATA ICAO Callsign
ME MEA CEDAR JET
Founded31 May 1945; 79 years ago (1945-05-31)
Commenced operations1 January 1946; 78 years ago (1946-01-01)
AOC #MEA-A001
HubsBeirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport
Frequent-flyer programCedar Miles
AllianceSkyTeam[1]
Subsidiaries
  • Cedar Executive
  • Lebanese Beirut Airport Catering Company (LBACC) (77.5%)
  • Middle East Airlines Ground Handling (MEAG)
  • Middle East Airports Services (MEAS)
  • Mideast Aircraft Services Company (MASCO)
Fleet size24 aircraft (22 commercial airliners + 2 private jets)
Destinations33[2]
Parent companyBanque du Liban
HeadquartersBeirut, Lebanon
Key peopleMohammad El Hout (chairman & director general)
ProfitDecrease US$-45,000,000 (2021)[3]
Employees5000+ (MEA, MEAG, MEAS, LBACC, MASCO) (2023)
Websitewww.mea.com.lb
A Middle East Airlines - Air Liban Airbus A330-200 taking off at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Middle East Airlines is an airline based in Lebanon. It flies between the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

History

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An MEA Airbus A330-200

Middle East Airlines opened for business on May 31, 1945. It was opened by Saeb Salam, with support from BOAC. MEA's work started on January 1, 1946 with flights between Beirut and Nicosia. Then its airplanes started to fly to Iraq, Egypt, Syria, and Cyprus. The company bought two Douglas DC-3 planes in mid-1946. Pan American World Airways bought a stake and management contract in September 1949.

Pan Am was replaced when BOAC acquired 49% of MEA's shares in 1955. It merged with Air Liban on 7 June 1963 and took over Lebanese International Airways.[4]

On September 7, 2006, Israel ended its 8-week long air blockade on Lebanon. A Middle East Airlines plane from Paris flew to the Rafik Hariri International Airport at 6:06 p.m. Lebanese time (3:03 p.m. GMT). MEA resumed its normal flight timetable on September 11, 2006. The MEA has a large assortment of airplanes including the a321neo as its newest plane.

Destinations

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An MEA Airbus A330-200 at Roissy Airport in France

Middle East Airlines flies its planes to these countries and their cities (since June 2006):

Africa

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Asia

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Europe

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References

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  1. ↑ "Middle East Airlines Joins SkyTeam". SkyTeam. Archived from the original on 2012-06-30.
  2. ↑ "MEA - Middle East Airlines on ch-aviation". ch-aviation. Retrieved 2023-12-03.
  3. ↑ Kaminski-Morrow, David (24 November 2021). "MEA full-year financial performance hammered by successive calamities". Flightglobal.com.
  4. ↑ "History and Network | About Us | Middle East Airlines". www.mea.com.lb (in gb). Retrieved 2023-12-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)


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