THE CEDARJET PAGES
By Wassim Chemaitelli
MEA TIMETABLE, SUMMER 1985.
The year 1985 was very difficult for MEA. The following document's starting point is the Summer 1985 timetable, eff September 1985 No40/D. Following the hijack of TWA's Boeing 727 into BEY and the dramatic events that followed, MEA was banned from flying to the USA and had to suspend its BEY-ORY-JFK weekly flight. Passenger traffic continued to drop, amplified by recession in the Gulf. MEA had to combine destinations in flight routings that were not seen since the early sixties. The following table summarizes the timetable contents for flights departing from BEY.
MEA's operations had been considerably reduced, only Paris, Jeddah and Kuwait were served more than 4 times weekly. However, flights to Damascus were introduced at that time in pool partnership with Syrian Arab Airlines, and a route to Riyadh was being planned. The usual design continued to be used for the timetables (left). However, the airline introduced advertisements for Havana Cigars sold in BEY's duty free shops on the back page of the timetable.
| Flight number | Flights per week | Routing | Traffic rights |
| ME/BA 201 | 2 | Beirut-London | |
| ME/BA 205 | 1 | Beirut-Brussels-London | |
| ME 211 | 6 | Beirut-Paris | |
| ME/SR 213 | 1 | Beirut-Geneva-Nice | |
| ME/LH 217 | 1 | Beirut-Frankfurt-Copenhagen | FRA-CPH-FRA |
| ME/TU/IB 223 | 1 | Beirut-Tunis-Madrid | |
| ME/BA 225 | 1 | Beirut-Frankfurt-London | |
| ME/AZ 231 | 2 | Beirut-Rome | |
| ME 235 | 1 | Beirut-Milan | |
| ME 247 | 1 | Beirut-Istanbul | |
| ME 251 | 2 | Beirut-Athens | |
| ME 253 | 1 | Beirut-Athens-Milan | |
| ME/SR 255 | 1 | Beirut-Athens-Geneva | |
| ME/SR 257 | 1 | Beirut-Athens-Zurich | |
| ME 261 | 4 | Beirut-Larnaca | |
| ME 265 | 1 | Beirut-Ankara | |
| ME/WT/RK 277 | 1 | Beirut-Kano-Abidjan | KAN-ABJ-KAN |
| ME/WT 279 | 1 | Beirut-Lagos-Monrovia | |
| ME 304 | 5 | Beirut-Cairo | |
| ME/RJ 312 | 2 | Beirut-Amman | |
| ME 332 | 1 | Beirut-Damascus | |
| ME 364 | 2 | Beirut-Jeddah-Aden | JED-ADE-JED |
| ME 364 | 1 | Beirut-Jeddah | |
| ME 368 | 2 | Beirut-Jeddah | |
| ME 374 | 2 | Beirut-Jeddah-Khartoum | JED-KRT-JED |
| ME 402 | 6 | Beirut-Kuwait | |
| ME 418 | 1 | Beirut-Bahrain-Abu Dhabi | |
| ME 426 | 2 | Beirut-Abu Dhabi- Dubai | |
| ME 432 | 1 | Beirut-Doha-Dubai | |
| ME 434 | 1 | Beirut-Bahrain-Doha | |
| ME 436 | 1 | Beirut-Abu Dhabi-Muscat | |
| ME 438 | 1 | Beirut-Dubai-Muscat | |
| ME 442 | 5 | Beirut-Dhahran | |
| ME 446 | 1 | Beirut-Dhahran-Bahrain |
Having leased out its Boeing 747s to British Airways after the ban on trans-Atlantic flights to JFK, MEA leased this Boeing 747-100, painted in a strange livery, from Guiness Peat Aviation in the summer of 1985 in order to make the most of the Hajj pilgrimage season. Photo: K.G.Wright, from the "Boeing 747" book by P.R. Smith, Airline Markings series No1, Airlife Publishing Ltd, 1990.
The Boeing 707 and 720s , in the same livery introduced 15 years earlier continued as MEA's workhorse during these difficult years. Copyright Clive Melbourne @Airliners.net .