Industry Airbus delivers A320 Family MSN 10,000 to MEA

At Airbus´ delivery facility in Toulouse, France, the manufacturer has handed over the aircraft with manufacturer serial number 10,000. Middle East Airlines is the carrier to take this milestone aircraft to the skies in the future.

For Airbus, this delivery underlines its massive progress in accelerating production and deliveries of the new A320 Neo Family. In 2012, MEA also took delivery of MSN 5,000, only eight years later the manufacturer has built 5,000 more aircraft.

Mohamad El-Hout, Chairman and Director General of MEA said: “We are honoured to receive the state of the art A321neo with its distinctive serial number 10,000 coinciding with the 75th anniversary of Middle East Airlines and specially after receiving MSN5,000 back in 2012. Since we first acquired an A320 Family aircraft in 2003, we have not only benefited from the outstanding operational efficiency of the aircraft but were also the first airline to introduce the wide-body cabin product on a single-aisle aircraft which has become a trend in the airline industry afterwards.”

Christian Scherer, Airbus Chief Commercial Officer added: “Airbus is proud to continue building its long-standing partnership with Middle East Airlines which already operates one of the most modern Airbus fleets in the world. As an all Airbus operator, MEA benefits from the Airbus’ unique fleet commonality between aircraft families and is now adding the third highly fuel-efficient A321neo to step up the game. I admire the agility and the resilience of this company in this complex environment [...] Delivering MSN10,000 is a milestone that demonstrates the success of the A320 Family and we thank our customers globally for their confidence in our products.”

“Unfortunately, due to the current situation in Lebanon, this time we will not be able to celebrate the delivery of the MSN10,000 in Beirut, as we did with the MSN5,000, but I am sure that in these challenging circumstances, it is a ray of light, hope and motivation to surpass our nation’s difficulties,” El-Hout concluded.

MEA has received its first A321 Neo aircraft earlier this year and over the upcoming months, is expected to welcome six more of the aircraft type. MEA is the flag-carrier airline of Lebanon and has its headquarters and hub at Beirut.

Its fleet consists of and all-Airbus fleet of 19 Aircraft, including 11 Airbus A320s, three A321 Neos and five Airbus A330-200s.