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Middle East Airlines (Arabic: طيران الشرق الأوسط), also known by its long 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. It is based at Rafic Hariri International Airport.

Middle East Airlines (MEA) is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization and the International Air Transport Association. In 2007, the airline will be joining the SkyTeam Alliance as an associate member through its partner Air France.

With the ongoing 2006 Israel-Lebanon crisis, MEA appears to have suspended its services indefinitely. On 14th July 2006 MEA evacuated four A321s and an A330 from Beirut to Cyprus to prevent their destruction. Long taxiways at the airport were used for this due to damage to the runways. Other aircraft that were not in Beirut at the outbreak of hostilities are currently scattered around the world, reportedly stranded in Paris, London, Dubai and other locations.

History

Middle East Airlines was founded on 31 May 1945 by Saeb Salam, with operational and technical support from BOAC, with three de Havilland DH.89A Rapides. Operations started on 1 January 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.

Pan Am were 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 16 August, 1961, MEA was merged with Air Liban on 7 June 1963 which gave Air France a 30% holding, since relinquished. The full title was then Middle East Airlines Air Liban. In 1963 it 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.

Its 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. It is majority owned by the Central Bank of Lebanon (99.37%) and employs 2,310 staff.

Future plans

The airline is planning to introduce self check-in kiosks at Beirut's Rafic Hariri 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 announced in December 2005 that it will be expanding its fleet by acquiring an Airbus aircraft in 2007 and another one in 2008. The types however have been unspecified, but at least one of them is expected to be an A330-200 to be used to upgrade the Paris service from daily A321 and daily A330 to twice daily A330s.

The airline also is planning to acquire 50 to 70 seat regional jet aircraft to be used on regional routes. The types have not been decided yet, but the Bombardier CRJ-700 and the Embraer ERJ-170 are likely candidates.

Services

Middle East Airlines operates services to the following international scheduled destinations (as of June 2006):

Africa

Asia

Europe

New Services

With the start of the Spring 2006 schedule, MEA increased frequencies on the following destinations:

  • Frankfurt - 3x weekly (4x weekly in the summer) to 4x weekly (5x weekly in the summer)
  • Riyadh - 5x weekly to 6x weekly

Since July 2nd, MEA began codesharing with the French National Railways, SNCF, to 15 destinations in France on the high-speed TGV train.

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 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.

Fleet

Current fleet (July 2006):

(Source: *)

External links

Company website
Other websites

Airlines of Lebanon | Airlines of the Middle East

Middle East Airlines | Middle East Airlines | ミドル・イースト航空 | Middle East Airlines | Middle East Airlines | Middle East Airlines | Middle East Airlines

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Middle East Airlines".

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