An interior courtyard in the site which hosts the headquarters of the MEA, in Beirut. (Credit: PHB)
Middle East Airlines (MEA) has scheduled 152 additional flights from Dec. 14, 2023, to Jan. 10, 2024, in a rebound from the cancellations following the onset of the conflict between Hamas and Israel on Oct. 7, which spilled into South Lebanon.
In an announcement, the national carrier detailed the expansion of its schedule, adding flights to numerous European destinations (including Athens, Brussels, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Larnaca, London, Milan and Paris), across the Middle East and Asia (to cities like Abu Dhabi, Amman, Baghdad, Dammam, Jeddah, Doha, Dubai, Erbil, Kuwait, Istanbul, Cairo, Najaf, Riyadh and Yerevan), as well as to African locations (Abidjan, Accra and Lagos).
MEA previously had a revised flight schedule from Nov. 1 to Dec. 7.
Despite prevailing uncertainties, the demand for flights to Beirut "remains strong for the holiday season," when many Lebanese living abroad return to their homeland to spend time with family, says MEA's Commercial Director Marwan Haber in a discussion with L'Orient-Le Jour. He notes that "for the period from Dec. 14 to 24, nearly all our flights are full, including those recently announced."
Haber points out, though, that even with these added flights, MEA's operations are still not at their usual levels due to the ongoing war. Following a statement by the CEO, Mohammad el-Hout, on Oct. 20, the airline considerably reduced its flight offerings.
"The additional flights were scheduled to accommodate those who had booked before we were forced to cut back the number of flights," Marwan Haber elaborates.
As a safety measure, MEA has also moved portions of its fleet to foreign airports, including one in Istanbul.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.