Middle East Airlines
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Founded | 31 May 1945 | ||||||
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Commenced operations | 1 January 1946 | ||||||
AOC # | MEA-A001 | ||||||
Hubs | Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport | ||||||
Frequent-flyer program | Cedar Miles | ||||||
Alliance | SkyTeam[1] | ||||||
Subsidiaries |
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Fleet size | 24 aircraft (22 commercial airliners + 2 private jets) | ||||||
Destinations | 33[2] | ||||||
Parent company | Banque du Liban | ||||||
Headquarters | Beirut, Lebanon | ||||||
Key people | Mohammad El Hout (chairman & director general) | ||||||
Profit | US$-45,000,000 (2021)[3] | ||||||
Employees | 5000+ (MEA, MEAG, MEAS, LBACC, MASCO) (2023) | ||||||
Website | www |
Middle East Airlines is an airline based in Lebanon. It flies between the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
History
[change | change source]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
[change | change source]Middle East Airlines flies its planes to these countries and their cities (since June 2006):
Africa
[change | change source]Asia
[change | change source]Europe
[change | change source]- Cyprus
- Denmark
- Copenhagen (sometimes)
- France
- Germany
- Düsseldorf (sometimes)
- Frankfurt am Main
- Greece
- Italy
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- United Kingdom
References
[change | change source]- ↑ "Middle East Airlines Joins SkyTeam". SkyTeam. Archived from the original on 2012-06-30.
- ↑ "MEA - Middle East Airlines on ch-aviation". ch-aviation. Retrieved 2023-12-03.
- ↑ Kaminski-Morrow, David (24 November 2021). "MEA full-year financial performance hammered by successive calamities". Flightglobal.com.
- ↑ "History and Network | About Us | Middle East Airlines". www.mea.com.lb (in gb). Retrieved 2023-12-09.
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