MEA Adds the 16th A320 to its Fleet
Lebanon’s national Carrier, Middle East Airlines, received the A320 plane from production plants in Hamburg, Germany, raising the MEA fleet to 16 airbus carriers, 15 owned and one chartered.
The plane’s first flight landed at Rafik Hariri International Airport on Saturday, with a media delegation and five engineers from the Masco Company that helped oversee the extradition process before delivery to the Company’s delegation.
Middle East Chairman Mohammad Hout was on board the plane in its first flight from Hamburg to Beirut, where he said that MEA operates eight A320, four 321, four A330, with two more 320 to be delivered before the end of the year.
The company will sell two 321, which brings the company’s fleet total to 16 aircrafts, he said.
“The plane is chartered for a period between 6 to 8 years,” said Hout assuring that when the company decides to buy new aircrafts it will choose the modern generation airplanes that save 15% in fuel consumption.
“MEA policy aims to charter four airplanes of the fleet since it falls in the framework of risk distribution, and because the new airplane generation of airbus and Boeing will be put on the market in 2017 and 2018 which will lead to sagging prices and that’s what prompted us to lease rather than acquire,” added Hout.
He concluded: “Lebanon’s political and security situation affect the number of the company’s airplanes.”
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