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The story
Middle East Airlines - Air Liban was founded on 31 May 1945 by Saeb Salam and Fawzi El-Hoss with operational and technical support from BOAC. Operations started on 1 January 1946 using three de Havilland DH.89A Dragon Rapides on flights between Beirut and Nicosia, followed by flights to Iraq, Egypt, and Syria. Two Douglas DC-3s were acquired in mid 1946. Pan American World Airways acquired a stake and management contract in September 1949. Pan Am was replaced when BOAC acquired 49% of MEA's shares in 1955. A Vickers Viscount was introduced in October 1955 while an Avro York cargo aircraft was leased in June 1957. On 15 December 1960 the first of four de Havilland Comet 4Cs arrived. After the association with BOAC ended on 16 August 1961, MEA was merged with Air Liban on 7 June 1963, which gave Air France a 30% holding (since relinquished). The full title was then Middle East Airlines – Air Liban. In 1963, MEA also took over Lebanese International Airways.
The current name was adopted in November 1965 when the airline was merged with Air Liban. Although operations were interrupted by the 1967 Arab–Israeli war, and by the Israeli raid on Beirut Airport in 1968, in which the airline lost three Comet 4C's, two Caravelles, a Boeing 707, the Vickers VC10, and the Vickers Viscount, MEA restarted by acquiring a Convair 990A from American Airlines, which entered service on 24 June 1969.
A Boeing 747-200B entered service in June 1975 on the Beirut–London route, and later on the Beirut–Paris–New York route from April 1983 until mid 1985. MEA had to adjust its operations due to the Lebanese Civil War between 1975 and 1991 but continued services despite multiple closures of the base at Beirut International Airport. Airbus A310-300s were acquired in 1993 and 1994, followed by an A321-200 in 1997 and the A330-200 (which replaced the A310s) in 2003. The airline has introduced self-check-in kiosks at Beirut International Airport as of 2010.
In November 2011, MEA's pilots union staged a 48-hour strike after a captain undergoing cancer treatment was dismissed shortly after going on sick leave.
On 28 June 2012, Middle East Airlines joined the SkyTeam alliance to become its 17th member and the second in the Middle East following Saudia. 5,000 staff are employed across the airline group. The central bank of Lebanon, Banque du Liban, owns a majority share of 99.50%.
On 11 November 2025, during its 80th anniversary conference, MEA's chairman, Mohamad El Hout, revealed the airline's plans to launch a new low-cost subsidiary, "Fly Beirut", to be managed by MEA itself. According to El Hout, the airline will commence operation in 2027 with a fleet of 6 aeroplanes and will be based out of Rene Mouawad Airport in North Lebanon.
In June 2026, Lebanon's aviation regulator opened a safety audit of the airline after pilot groups alleged crews has been asked to fly close to airstrikes and that pilots had been penalised for reporting safety incidents.
From Wikipedia’s article on Middle East Airlines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4