66- MEA's first owned Airbus A321, co number 1878, seen in January 2003 in Hamburg. It held the temporary D-AVZA marking. Copyright Gerd Beilfuss@Flugzeugbilder.de.
THE CEDARJET PAGES 
By Wassim Chemaitelli
A New Departure : 2003-
In the painful context of Lebanon's troubled post
war economy and politics, and amidst the bad results of
the aviation industry, MEA's 2002 financial results were a
real achievement. The airline had come a long way and could reasonably
look with confidence to the future. MEA took delivery of its
first owned Airbus A321, F-ORME, in February 2003, the first of
a homogenous fleet of 6. 3 Airbus A330 were leased from ILFC as of
April 2003 in order to replace the Airbus A310s. Check MEA's fleet list
for more the delivery schedule and registration numbers of the new
fleet. A new seasonal flight to Düsseldorf, Germany was launched
in 2003, and different routes were upgraded to A330 service for the
summer schedule.
66- MEA's first owned Airbus A321, co number 1878, seen in January 2003 in Hamburg. It held the temporary D-AVZA marking. Copyright Gerd Beilfuss@Flugzeugbilder.de.
In 2003, MEA increased its profits to 22 million
USD, 7 times more than in 2002 and carried close to 970000
passengers. The airline continued its steady development throughout
2004, resumed operations to Copenhagen and Doha and introduced flights
to the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh in Sinai. Profits
reached 51 million USD in 2004 as more than 1.17 million passengers
flew with the airline during that year.
MEA's operations suffered from the political instability
following the assassination of former prime minister, Mr Rafik Hariri
in February 2005 and the forced withdrawal of the Syrian army from
Lebanon. The number of passengers to Beirut declined at that time but
the airline was able to maintain most of its flights. Special fares
were introduced in order to encourage visitors to Lebanon in April 2005.
Despite these setbacks MEA managed to make profits in 2005, reaching 40
million USD; and carried 1.1 million passengers. At that point, MEA flew to 27 destinations:
In the Middle East: Beirut, Amman, Jeddah, Riyadh,
Dammam, Kuwait, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Cairo with seasonal
flights to Sharm El Sheikh.
Southern and Western Europe: Larnaca, Istanbul,
Athens, Rome, Milan, Paris, Geneva, Frankfurt and London. Seasonal flights to Düsseldorf, Nice and Copenhagen.
West Africa: Kano, Lagos, Accra and Abidjan
.
67- MEA's first owned Airbus A321, F-ORME. MEA/Airbus
photo, from Jamil Itani's collection.
68- MEA celebrates the delivery of F-ORME
in February 2003. It was the first brand-new airliner to be
bought by MEA since the Boeing 747s in 1974. Copyright Jamil
Itani @ Plane Pictures .net
69- Interior views of the A321 cabin. Left,
business class seats. Right, Chairman Mohamed El Hout takes
a look at the Economy Class cabin layout (all seats have personal
television screens) of the first A321, F-ORME , just before its
delivery in February 2003. From Jamil Itani's collection.
70- MEA's first leased Airbus A330 seen at Airbus'
Toulouse HQ. Copyright French Frogs AirSlides@Airliners.net
.. 
71- Pictures of the cabin layout of MEA's A330s,
left, the business class, right the economy class. From Jamil
Itani's collection.
72- MEA Route Network, 2004. The lines drawn
do not represent the actual flight routings. Map : National
Geographic Website.
73- MEA A330 takes off from Beirut, May 2004.
In the background, the green hills of Mount-Lebanon. Copyright
Hisham Atallah@Airliners.net
74- MEA A321 returning to its home-base, Beirut.
In the background, Ras-Beyrouth. Copyright Hisham Atallah@Airliners.net.
75- A tribute to the tumultuous old day, OD-AHC,
Boeing 707, seen in Beirut, May 2004. Copyright Hisam
Atallah @Airliners.net.
Despite a promising beginning, 2006 will be remembered for Israeli attacks,
mostly against civilian targets in Lebanon, supposedly in retaliation
to the abduction of 2 soldiers by the Hezbolllah militia near the southern
border. Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport was among the first targets
hit by the Israelis, forcing the closure of the airport on July 13th. MEA
was able to fly the 5 airliners that were in BEY to Larnaca and Amman on
July 14th. The airline was forced to suspend all operations between July
13th and July 20th. MEA was able to resume flights on a limited scale out
of Damascus International Airport as of July 21st (London,Paris, Frankfurt,
Cairo, Dubai, Riyadh, Dammam, Kuwait and Jeddah) while awaiting the end of
the Israeli punitive campaign against Lebanon and the resumption of flights
out of Beirut. Other flights were added out of Larnaca and Amman during
the following week, with some long range destinations as Accra, Abidjan, Kano,
Singapore and Sydney. MEA was able to resume its Beirut operations on August
17th 2006, one day after a belated resolution calling for the cessation of
hostilities was voted by the UN. Again, MEA was the first to reopen
Lebanon's skies, starting with flights between Beirut and Amman and continuing
onwards to Larnaca, Kuwait, Dammam, Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai, Cairo, Kano,
Lagos, Accra and Abidjan. Flights to Europe (London, Paris and Frankfurt)
continued operating out of Damascus until August 22nd; a situation that
lasted until normal operations out of Beirut were resumed on 09-07-06. The
direct and indirect losses related to the "July War" were estimated to have
reached 45 million USD; and these were partially reduced by the fact that
MEA was not charged any fees for the use of facilities in Syria and Jordan;
as a gesture of solidarity from the governments of these countries with Lebanon.
By the end of 2006, MEA was able to absorb the losses caused by the war,
posting a 20 million USD profit for the year, and plans were under way for
expanding the fleet. In October 2007, 6 Airbus A320s and 4 Airbus A330s
(in replacement of the currently leased 3 A330s) were ordered, as part of
an expansion plan that should increase the fleet size from 9 to 16 aircraft.
Profits soared to 60 million USD for 2007. In 2008, codeshare agreements
were initiated with Saudia, Tunisair, Yemenia and Etihad Airways respectively
for flights to Dammam, Tunis, Sanaa and Abu Dhabi. Seasonal flights were
planned for the summer to Cologne / Bonn instead of Dusseldorf. Flights
to Doha were restarted during the Spring.
The airline's network thus included the 29 following stations during the
Spring of 2008:
In Asia: Beirut, Amman, Kuwait, Dammam (codeshare with Saudia, flights
operated by both airlines), Doha (Codeshare with Qatar Airways, flights operated
by both airlines), Abu Dhabi (Codeshare with Etihad, flights operated by
both airlines), Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah, Sanaa (Codeshare with Yemenia which
operates all flights).
In Europe: Larnaca, Istanbul, Athens, Milan, Rome, Frankfurt, Cologne/Bonn
(Seasonal), Copenhagen (Seasonal), Geneva, Nice (Seasonal), Paris (Codeshare
with Air France, flights operated by both airlines) and London.
In Africa: Cairo, Sharm El Sheikh (Seasonal), Tunis (Codeshare with Tunisair
which operates all flights), Kano, Lagos, Accra and Abidjan.
MEA continued its expansion with the delivery of its first owned Airbus A330-234
in June 2008, despite a difficult political climate in Lebanon that had forced
an 8 day closure on Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport in May of
the same year. A modified livery was introduced for the occasion.
For updated information on MEA's current
operations, please follow the link to MEA's official website.
MEA's story is one of the most fascinating in the history modern
air transport. The ambition of these pages by making this
story available to all via the internet, is to pay a tribute to all
the men and women whom by their work, faith and devotion gave
Lebanon its mythical wings, the Cedarwings.
