MEA's history in pictures (1946-2004)

greekdude1 ,
yes they leased airplanes from KLM too, but MEA did return all of them, MEA has a new fleet now: 6 A321’s and 3 A330’s.

Hand87_5 ,
MEA used to fly to ORY, but now they are codesharing with Air France on the CDG-BEY route, Air France has a daily B777-200 to Beirut and MEA has 2 flights daily on A330 and A321, which makes 21 flights per week (a lot of demand on this route). Air France will add an additional flight this summer on Saturdays, so on a summer Saturday AF will send it’s daily B777-200 plus the additional flight on a B747-400, quite interesting to see these two widebodies in Beirut Int’l

😀

MEA 747-200 in Sydney (in the old color scheme), november 1996

I remember MEA jet’s landing at ORY before the move to CDG.

They were leasing A310’s from KLM in the 90’s, I believe -200’s. Did they eventually return these leased -300’s like the one pictured to LH, or do they still have them?

greekdude1 ,
they stoped serving Sydney for financial reasons, MEA was having severe financial problems, i think if i’m not mistaken they stopped in 2001.

steve rowell,
they did operate to Sydney, first with the Boeing 747-200 and then they leased an Airbus 310 from Lufthansa after getting rid of the jumbo, this is a picture of the A310 in Sydney, I’ll post a picture of the 747 in Sydney as soon as I find it.
Regards

I didn’t know MEA ever operated into KSA

When did they stop serving SYD? I know there is a huge Lebanese population in Sydney.

greekdude1 ,
MEA used the 747 for longhaul flights such as Sydney, Sao Paolo and New York (they started flying BEY-JFK non stop in 1983) !!

I love those 720’s and 707’s. The flew those in ATH as late as 1995. What routes were the 747’s used for?

ALBERT ROSS,
thanks a lot for the infos, I missed these two indeed, the Avro York looks marvelous.

MEA HISTORY

There are two early types that you have missed from the 1950s:

The Douglas DC-3 and the Avro York.

Here is a rare photo of the York,as MEA acquired it in June 1957, but it was lost just over a year later when it crashed in the Mediterranean Sea en-route Beirut-Rome on 29 September 1958.

Originally posted by MEA380

Airline owner ,
you are right, the A330 looks very pretty and elegant in this color scheme, I wonder how the A340-500 would look like 😀 (I wish)

Well if you ask members such as Britannia, tenthije or bmused55 they would do a fake photo of a Airbus A 345

Good story and pictures, always nice to hear of an airline’s origins.:D

steve rowell,
MEA leased for a very short time indeed, it was for short- and middle routes to the Middle East and Europe.

Airline owner ,
you are right, the A330 looks very pretty and elegant in this color scheme, I wonder how the A340-500 would look like 😀 (I wish)

SOFTLAD ,
MEA is the national carrier of Lebanon, and the Cedar tree is the national symbol of the country, that’s why you see this tree on MEA airplanes. This is an attachement of the lebanese flag.
Regards.

The A330 looks fantastic in MEA’s livery….so sleek and elegant

Why was the VC10 on their list for such a short time???????

Great selection of pictures there. One question i have is what does the tree stand for ? Or is it just a image that MEA have chosen to go with ?

thanks Interflug62M 😀

Nice pics! One of my favourite airlines. I have 2 MEA models in my collection, one is a 1/100 scale B747 and the other is a 1/100 A321 in the latest scheme. MEA has survived many bad times and its survival and continued operation is a testimony to those who have worked in it.