MEA ( Middle East Airlines ):

Start your trip from Beirut to be carried to many European cities, Arabic Gulf countries, and to the African continent.

MEA History and Network

Middle East Airlines (MEA) was established in 1945. The Lebanon based airline launched its very first service routes between Beirut and the neighbouring cities of Syria, Cyprus and Egypt. It wasn’t long before the company also established regular passenger service to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other important destinations in the Gulf. In 1963, the merge with Air Liban allowed MEA to add even more new European and Middle East destinations to its worldwide programme, including service to principle towns and cities in Western Africa.

Despite regular closure of the Beirut International Airport during Lebanon’s civil war between 1975 and 1990, the company managed to survive by leasing our aircraft and seconding staff, to other international carriers.  With the return to normality in 1990, MEA not only succeeded in re-establishing service to all its previous destinations, but also strengthened and improved its network to Europe, the Middle East and the Gulf..

Today, MEA’s fleet is made up of largely Airbus models A330 and A321.

Destinations covered by MEA are (to/from Beirut):
Europe – Paris*  London*  Frankfurt  Rome  Athens  Geneva  Istanbul
Nice**, Dusseldorf** and Copenhagen**
The Gulf – Jeddah*  Riyadh  Dhahran  Dubai*  Abu Dhabi*  Kuwait* .Doha
The Middle East – Larnaca*  Amman*  Cairo*. Sharm el Sheikh**
Africa – Abidjan  Lagos  Kano  Accra

(*) Daily flights. Paris: 3 flights a day

(**) Seasonal

MEA also offers a daily connection between Paris and the following cities: Jeddah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait.

The objectives of MEA are aligned with those of other international carriers: to live up to the challenges posed by a fiercely competitive industry in an increasingly less protected environment. From 1998 to 2002, MEA implemented its largest restructuring ever, turning around the company from huge annual losses that exceeded $80 million in 1997 to a net profit of $22 million in 2003. The business plan included the rationalization of MEA’s network, streamlining its purchasing policy, cost reductions at all levels of the airline, the launch of the frequent flyer programme and yield management systems, as well as a number of other measures destined to modernize and restructure the airline.

Parallel to the changes deep within the structure of MEA, the Lebanese government committed itself to building a new international airport capable of handling 6M passengers a year, which also succeeded in making the country an ideal transit stop for flights to the Gulf and the rest of the Middle East.