Middle East Airlines
Middle East Airlines - Air Liban (Arabic طيران الشرق الأوسط Tairan al - Sharq al - exhale, DMG Ṭayrān al - al - Awsat SARQ ), in the outer appearance shortly MEA, is a Lebanese airline based in Beirut and hub at Beirut airport - Rafiq Hariri. The MEA is a member of IATA, the Arab Air Carriers Organization and the airline alliance SkyTeam.
History
The MEA was established in 1945 began with the first flight routes between Beirut and Syria, Cyprus and Egypt, and later to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf region. Between 1945 and 1947, were the MEA flights from Beirut preferred mode of transport for Zionist politicians from Palestine as David Ben Gurion and Moshe Sharett, which the British military government had banned all flights from Palestinian territory. In the 1950s, the MEA was the common regional airline Pan Am and BOAC, equipped by the MEA with flight equipment. Therefore, the result also the name of the company. Beirut was at this time the regional hub for flights in the entire Middle East, especially in the Gulf region. In 1963, after the merger with Air Liban, the route network was expanded to other destinations in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
On 28-29. December 1968 Israeli commandos landed on the Beirut airport and blew up 13 machines of the MEA and fuel depot in reprisal for a Palestinian attack on an Israeli plane on December 26, 1968 in Athens.
During the Lebanese civil war in 1975 and 1990 Beirut airport was often closed. During this time, the Company leased repeated aircraft and personnel to other airlines. Thereafter, the regular operation could be resumed.
As of 1998, the Company had to go through a larger restructuring to convert a loss of 87 million U.S. dollars in 1997 to a profit of 22 million ( 2003) and 50 million ( 2004).
On 13 July 2006 was taken in the wake of the Israel - Lebanon crisis of Beirut airport by Israeli missiles. The three runways sustained any serious damage, so the airport was temporarily closed. Nevertheless, we succeeded the MEA to evacuate five of its aircraft on a runway. In the same year the so-called Self -service check -in kiosks were opened at the Beirut airport. Furthermore, it was founded with six other Arab Airlines regional airline alliance Arabesk Airline Alliance and placed in the summer of 2006, between 10% and 20 % of the company shares on the Beirut Stock Exchange as part of a long-term strategy to fully privatize the company.
In January 2011 it was announced that MEA will join by 2012 the airline alliance SkyTeam. The accession finally took place on June 28, 2012
Objectives
MEA operates a network to a variety of destinations in Europe and the Middle East. During the summer months of June to September, the MEA offers three weekly flights to Berlin Schönefeld, Brussels, Nice, Copenhagen, Sharm el Sheikh and Dusseldorf, besides also all year Frankfurt am Main and the Iraqi Sulaymaniyah is approached ( Beirut ).
Fleet
As of November 2013, the fleet of MEA consists of 17 planes with an average age of 4.8 years: