By Wassim Chemaitelli

MEA TIMETABLE, WINTER 1998/99.

This document is based on MEA's timetable eff October 25th 1998.

MEA's new Mondrian style timetable format (left) was adopted in March 1998. It featured for the first time, not only direct MEA flights, but also connecting flights with different airlines. Right: An Airbus photo of MEA's F-OHMO Airbus A320. From George Gayuski's collection.

MEA's 1998 network dropped to 19 destinations, with the suppression of non-profitable routes. MEA's new policy was to give priority to high-yield routes and to simplify and rationalize the operations in order to increase productivity and to cut losses.
 

Flight number	Flights per week	Routing	Aircraft
ME 201	5	Beirut-London	A310
ME 203	2	Beirut-Zurich	A310
ME 211	Daily	Beirut-Paris/Orly	A310
ME 213	2	Beirut-Geneva	A321
ME 217	4	Beirut-Frankfurt	A310
ME 231	4	Beirut-Rome	A320
ME 251	3	Beirut-Athens	A320
ME 261	4	Beirut-Larnaca	A321
ME 265	4	Beirut-Istanbul	A321
ME 304	Daily	Beirut-Cairo	A321
ME 312	Daily	Beirut-Amman	A320
ME 368	Daily	Beirut-Jeddah	A321
ME 402	Daily	Beirut-Kuwait	A321
ME 418	Daily	Beirut-Abu Dhabi	A320
ME 422	3	Beirut-Riyadh	A310
ME 428	Daily	Beirut-Dubai	A320
ME 442	2	Beirut-Dhahran	A310
ME/WT 571	2	Beirut-Lagos-Abidjan	A310

Joint flights:
ME/WT=Nigeria Airways  BEY-LOS-BEY

MEA's losses were cut by 50% following these measures to around 48 Million USD, however more will be needed in order to improve the airline's performances, and to face the increasing competition by international carriers. A restructuring plan will be disclosed in 1994, with the signature of a code-share agreement with Air France and the adoption of a hub-and-spoke style of operations in and out of Beirut.

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