THE CEDARJET PAGES 
By Wassim Chemaitelli
MEA TIMETABLE, SUMMER 1983.
This document is based on MEA's schedules timetable eff summer 1983 N°36. During that year, a special Lebanon Edition was published, different from the one page timetable in use since 1960. This glossy version will be regularily published until 1997 in parallel with the classical one page chart format.
During this period, MEA started recovering from the painful 1982 events. Flights were restored to all cities of the network except Baghdad and Benghazi. The trans-Atlantic route to New York - JFK was finally opened via Paris on March 1st 1983 with 3 weekly flights. MEA used American Airlines's terminal in JFK.
The following table summarizes the timetable contents for flights departing from BEY.
| Flight number | Flights per week | Routing | Traffic rights/Remarks |
| ME/BA 201 | Daily | Beirut-London /Heathrow | |
| ME 211 | 4 | Beirut-Paris/Orly | |
| ME/SR 213 | 1 | Beirut-Geneva-Nice | |
| ME/SR 215 | 2 | Beirut-Zurich-Frankfurt | |
| ME/LH 217 | 2 | Beirut-Frankfurt-Copenhagen | FRA-CPH-FRA |
| ME/SR 221 | 1 | Beirut-Zurich-Brussels | |
| ME/TU/IB 223 | 2 | Beirut-Tunis-Madrid | |
| ME/SR 225 | 1 | Beirut-Geneva-Brussels | |
| ME/SR/IB 227 | 1 | Beirut-Geneva-Madrid | |
| ME/AZ 231 | 5 | Beirut-Rome | |
| ME 235 | 2 | Beirut-Milan | |
| ME 247 | 2 | Beirut-Istanbul | |
| ME 251 | Daily | Beirut-Athens | |
| ME 261 | 4 | Beirut-Larnaca | |
| ME 265 | 2 | Beirut-Ankara | |
| ME/WT/RK 277 | 1 | Beirut-Lagos-Abidjan | B747 |
| ME/WT 279 | 1 | Beirut-Kano-Monrovia | |
| ME 304 | Daily | Beirut-Cairo | B747, 2 times a week |
| ME 312 | Daily | Beirut-Amman | |
| ME 364 | 2 | Beirut-Jeddah-Aden | JED-ADE-JED |
| ME 368 | 3 | Beirut-Jeddah | B747 |
| ME 374 | 2 | Beirut-Jeddah-Khartoum | JED-KRT-JED |
| ME 402 | 6 | Beirut-Kuwait | |
| ME/GF 418 | Daily | Beirut-Abu Dhabi | |
| ME/GF 424 | 1 | Beirut-Dubai-Rasalkhaymah | |
| ME/GF 428 | 3 | Beirut-Dubai | |
| ME/GF 434 | Daily | Beirut-Bahrain-Doha | |
| ME/GF 438 | 3 | Beirut-Dubai-Muscat | |
| ME 442 | 6 | Beirut-Dhahran | B747, 3 times a week |
| ME 711 | 3 | Beirut-Paris/Orly-New York | B747 |
Joint flights:
ME/BA= British Airways BEY-LHR-BEY
ME/RK=Air Afrique BEY-ABJ-BEY
ME/IB = Iberia BEY-MAD-BEY
ME/SR= Swissair BEY-GVA-BEY and BEY-ZRH-BEY
ME/AZ = Alitalia BEY-FCO-BEY
ME/WT= Nigeria Airways BEY-KAN-BEY, BEY-LOS-BEY
ME/GF= Gulf Air between Beirut and : Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai, Muscat,
Ras Al Khaymah
ME/TU= TunisAir BEY-TUN-BEY
All flights were operated by B707 or 720 except those for which the
747s were used as specified in the table above.
The Boeing 707 and the B720s remained MEA's workhorse in 1983.
Photo : MEA postcard.
Right, MEA ticket jacket of 1983.
In 1983, MEA recovered its B747s and flew them to New York, Paris, Abidjan,
Lagos, Cairo, Jeddah and Dhahran.
Photo: MEA 747 seen in 1983 in Paris. Copyright Steve Williams @Airliners.net.
This period of relative calm in Lebanon will be short - lived, with
the outbreak of the "Mountains War" in 1984. The JFK service will be discontinued
in the summer of 1985.
Follow
this link for more on MEA's JFK flights
Return to MEA's struggle for survival