A MEA Airbus in flight. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Middle East Airlines’ CEO Mohammad al-Hout said on Tuesday that the company "did not receive any threats or information from any source that there would be a strike on the airport," according to the state-run National News Agency.
"If we had any fear or information of a strike, we would not leave half the number of airplanes at the airport, but we would have taken them out," Hout added after meeting with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail in Beirut.
Several airlines have canceled or delayed flights in and out of Rafik Hariri International Airport as Lebanon and the international community expect Israel to retaliate for a deadly strike that killed 12 children in the occupied Golan Heights on Saturday evening. These flight changes are in addition to delays accrued by several scheduled Middle East Airline (MEA) flights.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in daily skirmishes along the Lebanese-Israeli border since last October, following the beginning of the war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.
Hout explained that the reason behind the MEA flight delays is related to the "distribution of insurance risks between Lebanon and abroad."
"We do not want to have a large number of airplanes at the airport during a certain hour in the morning, in case, God forbid, something happens, which is not expected."
Finally, he said that most of MEA's planes "move normally," as there is a delay for five to six planes out of thirty-six flights, while the rest are on schedule."
At the beginning of the war, MEA changed or canceled a number of flights due to a reduction in insurance coverage.
