MEA full-year financial performance hammered by successive calamities

Middle East Airlines has disclosed full-year losses of LL68.1b ($45m) for 2020, a year in which the country faced an economic crisis, the effects of the pandemic, and the fallout from the Beirut port explosion. The loss contrasted with the near-LL130b profit for the carrier in the previous year, as passenger revenues fell by nearly 60% to LL442b. Around 55% of its revenues derived from Middle East sectors from Beirut, another 30% from European services and 15% from African operations. MEA says Lebanon has been experiencing “severe events” since October 2019 which set off an interconnected fiscal, monetary and economic crisis – to the point of sovereign default in March 2020, even before the Covid-19 pandemic engulfed global air transport. The airline says it has substantially reduced network capacity, made structural changes to the fleet, and taken other cash-management measures in response to the impact of the pandemic. But it adds that, despite a gradual resumption of activity, its financial performance will “continue to be affected…for a duration that currently remains uncertain”.<br/>