Location: Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Israel and Syria. Geography: Nahr el Litani is the only major river in Near East not crossing an international boundary; rugged terrain historically helped isolate, protect, and develop numerous factional groups based on religion, clan, and ethnicity.
Area: total: 10,400 sq km, land: 10,230 sq km, water: 170 sq km.
Capital: Beirut.
Industries: banking, tourism, food processing, wine, jewelry, cement, textiles, mineral and chemical products, wood and furniture products, oil refining, metal fabricating.
Languages: Arabic (official), French, English, Armenian.
National Holiday: Independence Day, 22 November (1943).
Population: 4,125,247 (July 2010 est.).
Labor force: 1.481 million In addition, there are as many as 1 million foreign workers (2007 est.)
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GDP (purchasing power parity):
• $61.44 billion (2011 est.)
• $60.53 billio (2010 est.)
• $56.57 billion (2009 est.)
• $51.18 billion (2008 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate):
$38.41 billion (2011 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
• 1.5% (2011 est.)
• 7% (2010 est.)
• 8.5% (2009 est.)
• 9.3% (2008 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP):
• $15,500 (2011 est.)
• $15,500 (2010 est.)
• $14,700 (2009 est.)
• $12,700 (2008 est.)
Budget:
Revenues: $9.334 billion
Expenditures: $11.67 billion (2011 est.)
Public debt:
134% of GDP (2011 est.)
141.7% of GDP (2010 est.)
Exports:
• $5.386 billion (2011 est.)
• $4.689 billion (2010 est.)
• $4.716 billion (2009 est.)
Imports:
• $19.3 billion (2011 est.)
• $17.19 billion (2010 est.)
• $15.9 billion (2009 est.)
Debt - external:
• $34.45 billion (31 December 2010 est.)
• $31.89 billion (31 December 2009 est.)
Debt - external:
• $29.47 billion (31 December 2011 est.)
• $28.42 billion (31 December 2010 est.)
• $31.89 billion (31 December 2009 est.)
Military expenditures: 3.1% of GDP (2005 est.)
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Airports: 7
Airports - with paved runways: 5
• Over 3,047 m: 1
• 2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
• 914 to 1,523 m: 1
• Under 914 m: 1
Airports - with unpaved runways: 2
• 914 to 1,523 m: 2
Aircraft Departures: 10,300.
IATA Code: ME | ICAO Code: MEA | Callsign: CEDAR JET |
Middle East Airlines
P.O. Box 206, Beirut
Lebanon
Tel: 961-1-628888/629250
Fax: 961-1-629260
www.mea.com.lb
Ownership: majority held by the Central Bank of Lebanon, Banque du Liban, (99.50%) |
Middle East Airlines is the national flag-carrier of Lebanon, and is based in Beirut. Its operational base is Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport, and it operates scheduled international services throughout the Middle East, Europe and Africa. Middle East Airlines was incorporated and commenced operations in January 1946.
Their future intention include floating about 25% of their shares on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) as part of a long-term plan to fully privatize the airline. Staff members of the airline and its group companies are approx. 5,000.
| AIRCRAFT |
ENGINE |
REGISTRATION NUMBER |
BUILT YEAR |
OWNED/LEASED |
| A321-200 |
V2533-A5 |
F-ORME |
2003 |
Owned |
| A321-200 |
V2533-A5 |
F-ORMF |
2003 |
Owned |
| A321-200 |
V2533-A5 |
F-ORMG |
2003 |
Owned |
| A321-200 |
V2533-A5 |
F-ORMH |
2003 |
Owned |
| A321-200 |
V2533-A5 |
F-ORMI |
2003 |
Owned |
| A321-200 |
V2533-A5 |
F-ORMJ |
2003 |
Owned |
| A330-200 |
TRENT 772B-60 |
F-OMEA |
2003 |
Leased |
| A330-200 |
TRENT 772B-60 |
F-OMEB |
2003 |
Leased |
| A330-200 |
TRENT 772B-60 |
F-OMEC |
2003 |
Leased |
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Trans Mediterranean Airways
الخطوط الجوية عبر المتوسط ش.م.ل
Beirut International Airport
P.O.Box 30, Beirut 1001, Lebanon
Tel: +961-1-629210/ +961-1-820540
Fax: +961-1-629219
www.tma.com.lb
Ownership: Privately owned (100%), for details please see below. |
Trans Mediterranean Airways SAL, was formed by Mounir Abou Haidar. The airline started scheduled cargo services in 1959 currently trading as as TMA Cargo, is a cargo airline based in Beirut, Lebanon. The airline restarted operations in 2010, following a six year suspension of flight operations.
The airline was established and started operations in 1953 as a non-scheduled carrier operating cargo and passenger services. It was certified as the only Lebanese scheduled all-cargo carrier in 1979. Trans Mediterranean Airways (TMA) was the first all-cargo carrier to establish round the world services in both directions. However the Lebanese crisis adversely affected TMA growth and operation. In November 1996, following the Lebanon’s post cicil war rescontrcution plan, the airline took measures to modernise its operations, restructure activities thus increased capital to approx. US $40 million. TMA is owned by Lebanese Air Investment Holding (99.9%) and private investors (0.1%).
TMA ceased all flights in February 2004 when the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority (LCAA) suspended the Air Operating Certificate (AOC) citing safety concerns over its aging Boeing 707 fleet, placing TMA in serious financial trouble and the planned fleet modernization was put to a complete halt.
In 2008, Mazen Bsat, Lebanese investor, owner and CEO of Med Airways (formally Flying Carpet ), bought TMA for $1 in exchange for clearing the airlines $60 million debt.
In October 2009, TMA launched renovated facilities and a new image, following this TMA also announced that they are to relaunch services. They acquired an Airbus A300-600F for the new cargo operations.In February 2010, the aircraft was painted in the new TMA Cargo livery.
TMA resumed its operations first week of July 2010. It is currently operating several weekly flights to Europe, in addition to two weekly flights to Cairo, Riyadh, Dubai and Sharjah.
Executives: Mazen Bsat (CEO), Mazen Sammak (CFO)