page_title: Middle East Airlines
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Middle East Airlines / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Middle East Airlines Boeing 747-200 (OD-AGJ) at Euroairport in December 1984.
context_page_description: Middle East Airlines – Air Liban S.A.L., more commonly known as Middle East Airlines, is the national flag-carrier airline of Lebanon, with its head office in Beirut, near Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport. It operates scheduled international flights to Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa from its base at Rafic Hariri International Airport.
  Middle East Airlines is a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance, the Arab Air Carriers Organization, and the International Air Transport Association. The airline expressed its interest in becoming a SkyTeam associate member in early 2006 at a press conference in New York.
  On 28 February 2011, MEA officially signed the partnership agreement with SkyTeam in an official ceremony in Beirut. On 28 June 2012, MEA officially joined SkyTeam to become its 17th member, as well as its second member airline in the Middle East.
context_section_description: Middle East Airlines 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 fleet was modernised with the addition of three Sud Aviation Caravelles in April 1963, three Boeing 720Bs in January 1966, one leased Vickers VC10 in March 1967, and a number of Boeing 707-320Cs from November 1967.   
  The current name was adopted in November 1965 when the airline was completely 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 to the realities of war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1991 and despite multiple closures of the base at Beirut International Airport, was able to continue operating against all odds. 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.
  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.  
  The airline has introduced self-check-in kiosks at Beirut's international airport as of July 2010. The airline is also planning on launching the Arabesk Airline Alliance with six other Arab carriers. Their future plans include floating about 25% of their shares on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) as part of a long-term plan to fully privatize the airline.    
  A majority of the airline is 99.50% owned by the central bank of Lebanon (Banque du Liban) and employs around 5,000 staff group-wide (as of February 2009). In November 2011, the chairman unlawfully terminated the a pilot who had cancer. This has forced the pilot union to go on strike as of 29 November 2011.
caption: A Middle East Airlines Boeing 747-200 in 1984
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