MEA in the early fifties
The European war operations had merely ended and the Lebanese entrepreneurial spirit quickly realized that the future of travel resided in air transportation. To this effect Saeb Salam and Fawzi Hoss founded Middle East Airlines on May 31,1945 with a fleet of 3 Dh89 Rapides. Technical assistance was provided by BOAC as was the case in Iraq with Iraqi Airways. The inaugural flight took place on November 30, 1945 between Beirut and Nicosia and the network expanded quickly to include in January 1946 in addition the 2 afore mentioned cities : Haifa, Lydda, Cairo and Baghdad. The success was immediate and MEA decided to acquire, the workhorse of the time, the legendary DC3 from US war surplus. The DC3 allowed the company to retire the Rapides but still the demand for air travel outnumbered the capacity and MEA had to turn for the acquisition of additional DC3. The white knight appeared in the form of PAN AMERICAN which offered ,as part of its expansion strategy, 3 DC3 in return for 36% of the capital of the company. PAN AMERICAN in its drive to expand needed a local airline for 1) feed its traffic 2) to counter TWA aggressive expansion which held most of the traffic rights in the region.  |
| MEA DC3 on the tarmac of the Beirut International airport. Copyright to the photographer
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The spring 1950 timetable gives an outlook of the limited network of the company and services to Lydda and Haifa were discontinued as a result of the Palestinian conflict.
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| MEA TIMETABLE dated 1950. www.timetableimages.com/Bjorn Larsson collection.1950 network map |
Network length 3240 km-6 destinations
The 1952 flight schedules
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| From the collection of Bjorn Larsson @www.timetableimages.com |
and network show the addition of Jerusalem and Bahrain as an en-route stop on the Dhahran run .In this particular case, MEA flight ME 376 was operating a dog legged service : Beirut-Kuwait-Bahrain-Dhahran-Kuwait-Beirut.
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| MEA 1952 NETWORK MAP |
Network length 3983 km-8 destinations
The 1953 timetable
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| MEA TIMETABLE dated May 23, 1953 . www.timetableimages.com/Bjorn Larsson collection |
will show no major changes over the 1952 timetable with the exception of a direct link between Dhahran and Beirut (ME373) .
Network length 5624 km-8 destinations
MEA acted as the best ambassador for Lebanon's tourist sector as evidenced by the cover if the above timetables reflecting the versatility of the Lebanese climate : Snow in winter from winter sports and and absolutely amazing beaches in the summer where the Mediterranean sea espouses harmoniously the beautiful Lebanese coast .
In 1954, the company carries 48450 passengers with a fleet of 7DC3
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| OD-ABB ME DC3 was ex PAN AMERCAN N79009 "Clipper undaunted".copyright Ed Coates |
Alas the partnership with Pan American will be dissolved in 1955 over some issues. One of them being a clash of opinion on the future pf the company as one party wanted MEA to remain a feeder to its services from Lebanon, to Europe, North America and the rest of the world, whereas the second party, taking into account the geo-political development in the region (political instability in the region, rapid economic development in the Arabic peninsula) wanted to play a more important regional and international role as a bridge between the Middle East and Europe. The other issue of a financial nature consisted of a disagreement on dividends payout policy, one party argued to be distributed to the shareholders, the other to constitute a reserve for future expansion. In 1955, Pan American withdraws from MEA capital. And BOAC steps in by acquiring a majority stake in the company turning MEA into a BOAC associate companies….and providing MEA with a golden ticket entrance to international expansion as BOAC will act as a guarantor for the Vickers viscount order MEA had placed. BOAC involvement comes as an extension of the Foreign Office policies to maintain a strong British influence in the Middle East.
To continue to read about the fascinating story of MEA after 1955, follow this link MEA & THE VICKERS VISCOUNT 1955-1969
More on Lebanese Commercial aviation can be found at
T.M.A BOEING 707
AIR LIBAN in 1955
Lebanese International Airways
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