It should be delivered in January and will carry a Lebanese registration (OD-XXX) unlike MEA's current A321s and A330s which carry French registrations (F-XXXX).
MEA leased 2 A320s and 2 A321s back in 1997 to replace its last 707s. Another A320 was leased in 2000. All these however were returned in 2003 when MEA replaced its entire leased A320/A321/A300/A310 fleet with a fleet of six owned A321s and three leased A330s.
MEA will receive three A320s in the first half of next year with the remaining three being delivered in 2010. MEA also has two options for 2011 deliveries.
"Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need." - Khalil Gibran
Kaitak From Ireland, joined Aug 1999, 11952 posts, RR: 37 Reply 1, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 3673 times:
Quoting BA (Thread starter): It should be delivered in January and will carry a Lebanese registration (OD-XXX) unlike MEA's current A321s and A330s which carry French registrations (F-XXXX).
Doesn't this pose a significant risk, if the Israelis decide that they feel like another northbound excursion; last time - back in '06 - the French registered acft were allowed to be ferried out, because they were owned by foreign lessors. They might not be allowed to do the same with OD- registered aircraft.
BA From United States of America, joined May 2000, 11135 posts, RR: 61 Reply 2, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 3658 times:
Quoting Kaitak (Reply 1):
Doesn't this pose a significant risk, if the Israelis decide that they feel like another northbound excursion; last time - back in '06 - the French registered acft were allowed to be ferried out, because they were owned by foreign lessors.
French registration has nothing to do with ownership.
MEA's six A321s are owned by MEA, not foreign lessors. Only MEA's original three A330s are owned by ILFC and the four new A330s (first one delivered in June) that are replacing MEA's original three leased A330s are owned by MEA.
MEA will own its entire fleet when it returns its original three A330s next year to ILFC which will then go on to Gulf Air.
I do not know the precise details, but I know MEA has been wanting to register its aircraft in Lebanon for a long time.
FlySSC From France, joined Aug 2003, 7313 posts, RR: 61 Reply 3, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 3637 times:
Quoting Kaitak (Reply 1): Doesn't this pose a significant risk, if the Israelis decide that they feel like another northbound excursion; last time - back in '06 - the French registered acft were allowed to be ferried out, because they were owned by foreign lessors.
This has nothing to do with the fact they are F-XXXX registered :
In the past tormented history of Lebanon, MEA had several times the sad occasion to fly its aircraft out of the country to protect them from bombing. That was the case with the B747 and B707 during the Civil war in the 80s & 90s. Most of them were stored and maintained at ORY by Air Inter and/or AF. They were often chartered with their Crew by AF and IT (Air Inter) to provide additional flights on their network.
Those aircraft were not F-XXXX registered.
Note also this is not the first time MEA is operating the A320.
Between 1997 and 2004, up to 3 A320 were operated by MEA : F-OHMO, F-OHMR, F-OHLO
Kamboi From United States of America, joined Sep 2000, 126 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 3359 times:
The more and more I look at the new livery the more and more it becomes very bland. I mean they added a couple of strike through lines (red, Blue), so what. What would really make the design stand about is a more dominant MEA logo on the upper side of the windows not below for more visibility. Also they needed more red on the tail.
Mozart From Luxembourg, joined Aug 2003, 2012 posts, RR: 14 Reply 6, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 5 days 17 hours ago) and read 3270 times:
With all those new planes joining the fleet, will there be an expansion of the route network? I very much wish so. MEA is a fine airline and I am badly missing flights to/from BEY that allow me to do weekend round trips from Europe without having to return at 3am.
BA From United States of America, joined May 2000, 11135 posts, RR: 61 Reply 7, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 3192 times:
Quoting Mozart (Reply 6): With all those new planes joining the fleet, will there be an expansion of the route network?
Directorguy From Egypt, joined Jul 2008, 1569 posts, RR: 12 Reply 9, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 3 days ago) and read 2775 times:
I think that regional jets would be incredibly useful for ME. Look at what RJ's done!
They could serve
-ALY
-SSH
-AMM
-DAM
-LCA
-ATH
-DOH
-KWI
-DMM
In addition, they should seek to establish high frequencies at
-DXB
-CAI
-LHR
-CDG
-FRA
-JED
Long-haul wise, the airline should focus on launching (or restarting) a few routes in addition to strengthening ties with AF such as YUL, YYZ, NYC, GRU/GIG, SYD and perhaps HKG/BKK/SIN.
This has been said for a long time. It remains to be seen whether MEA will implement all this.
BA From United States of America, joined May 2000, 11135 posts, RR: 61 Reply 10, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 2 days 13 hours ago) and read 2623 times:
In October, MEA's Chairman, Mohammad El-Hout, mentioned that they were negotiating with Bombardier for regional jets.
Mozart From Luxembourg, joined Aug 2003, 2012 posts, RR: 14 Reply 11, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 2591 times:
I assume the A320s will have the new C class seats as well?
I watched that video that you provided in the other link (thanks again for that! ), but to be honest I found that slide show quite lame. Cheesy music to show different angles of the seat - but always in upright position! For advertising, it would have made sense to show it in lie-flat position, table extended, storage space, etc.
In any case, I'll most probably test it in a couple of days unless they do a last minute A/C swap. Curious to experience what the video did not show
FlySSC From France, joined Aug 2003, 7313 posts, RR: 61 Reply 13, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 2424 times:
Quoting Directorguy (Reply 9): I think that regional jets would be incredibly useful for ME. Look at what RJ's done!
Quoting Directorguy (Reply 9): In addition, they should seek to establish high frequencies at
-DXB
-CAI
-LHR
-CDG
-FRA
-JED
I think we all agree MEA needs a RJ fleet besides its "classic" A320/A321/A330 fleet but as it says for a "regional" use only and certainly not to serve European destinations such as CDG/FRA/LHR or even DXB.
I can see a potential MEA RJ fleet used between BEY and CAI, LCA, DAM, AMM, ALY, LKT AYT, ESB, EVN but not further.
Knowing well the Lebanese and Middle Eastern customers, I don't think they would appreciate the RJs* on flights of more than 1h30 ...
* by RJs, I mean CRJ100/200/700/900 or ERJ135/145/170.
Cedars747 From Norway, joined Dec 2005, 2686 posts, RR: 23 Reply 14, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 2259 times:
Quoting FlySSC (Reply 13): Knowing well the Lebanese and Middle Eastern customers, I don't think they would appreciate the RJs* on flights of more than 1h30 ...
That's true ! Lebanese for example where used to fly BEY-LCA 40 minutes flight on board B707 and B720 !
Directorguy From Egypt, joined Jul 2008, 1569 posts, RR: 12 Reply 15, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 2204 times:
Totally agree!
MEA could try using the RJs to further European points such as BRU, AMS, Cologne, NCE etc instead of mainline A320 family aircraft since they aren't exactly high-demand and MEA doesn't have the behind network to sustain them (unless they want to do 1x weekly A320 flights, a strategy I abhor).
Interesting to note that MS is planning to launch E-170 flights to Europe (Catania) and already flies long flights such as SSH-DOH and RMF(Marsa Alam, small small resort in Egypt)-KWI.
FlySSC From France, joined Aug 2003, 7313 posts, RR: 61 Reply 16, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 1 day 6 hours ago) and read 2159 times:
Quoting Directorguy (Reply 15): MEA could try using the RJs to further European points such as BRU, AMS, Cologne, NCE etc instead of mainline A320 family aircraft since they aren't exactly high-demand
BRU, AMS are destinations that could sustain 2 or 3 x Weekly services.
The problem for MEA is that they don't have enough aircraft to serve all the destinations they want so they had to make a choice a few years ago an keep only the most profitable ones.
Again, I don't think RJs are adapted for flights of 4h30 or more like BEY-AMS, BEY-BRU.
OD720 From Lebanon, joined Feb 2003, 1919 posts, RR: 36 Reply 17, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 1 day 6 hours ago) and read 2149 times:
Just to remind you that MEA's initial intention was to get RJs but heavy marketting from Airbus made them choose the A319. So the order was for A319s but they had to switch it to A320s because Airbus was unable to meet the high order book on the A319.
Now that they were pushed for the A320, I don't see too unlikely a renewed interest in RJs sometime in the near future.
FlySSC From France, joined Aug 2003, 7313 posts, RR: 61 Reply 19, posted (4 years 5 months 1 week 11 hours ago) and read 1962 times:
Quoting OD720 (Reply 17): Now that they were pushed for the A320, I don't see too unlikely a renewed interest in RJs sometime in the near future.
Once again, it all depends on what you put behind "RJ" : if you think about the 90/100 seater Emb170/Emb190, you are right.
But I think MEA does need smaller planes for its REAL regional/local markets, I mean flights up to 1 hour / 1h15 such as AMM, CAI, ALY, DAM, ALP, LCA.
CRJ100/200 or ERJ135/145 or even regional Turboprop ATR42/72 style.
TodaReisinger From Switzerland, joined Mar 2001, 2753 posts, RR: 1 Reply 20, posted (4 years 5 months 6 days 16 hours ago) and read 1698 times:
I guess those new A320s have also PTVs in all classes as the other small Airbusses in MEA's fleet.....I was impressed reading this at the time, and I wondered (and still wonder) why most airlines do not install PTVs on short-haul airplanes... And of course, I think in the first place of El Al... Their flights to/from Europe take exactly the same time as MEA's...and it would indeed be great to have a personal screen; when I fly on LX airplanes between Switzerland and Israel, it's nice to use those devices, it makes the flight shorter.
Regarding the livery...I was not a fan of MEA's previous scheme, but compared to the "new" one it was much more elegant. I find these colored stripes absolutely hideous, it looks like a cheap charter airline.
Quoting Kamboi (Reply 5): What would really make the design stand about is a more dominant MEA logo on the upper side of the windows not below for more visibility
I agree 100%.
I bitterly miss the livery that should never have been changed (repetition...)
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), but to be honest I found that slide show quite lame. Cheesy music to show different angles of the seat - but always in upright position! For advertising, it would have made sense to show it in lie-flat position, table extended, storage space, etc. 
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