‘The most badass airline on the planet’: Lebanon’s carrier flies through war

Ever since Carla Haddad can remember, stepping aboard a Middle East Airlines aircraft was like being “one step closer to home”. Growing up abroad, the 39-year-old would regularly fly back to visit family in her native Lebanon, the MEA flights full to the brim with fellow citizens excitedly heading back in an annual summer ritual. But in late September, as Israel stepped up its campaign against Hizbollah in Lebanon, where she now lives, MEA became more than just a memory. As the violence moved closer to her Beirut doorstep in September, Haddad and her family boarded an MEA flight to the safety of Marseille. “It was the lifeboat that helped us escape yet another horrible war,” she said. MEA has long been a mainstay of Lebanon’s collective imagination, with memories coloured by the country’s propensity for rose-tinted nostalgia. Lebanese have mixed feelings about their national carrier: it is as beloved for reuniting families during the lengthy civil war and serving sweet, fragrant knafeh for breakfast, as it is hated for its sky-high peak season prices and ageing fleet. But for the past seven weeks, as its pilots have deftly navigated Israeli air strikes, MEA has become a beacon of national pride. The sole remaining airline currently flying in and out of Lebanon, MEA has helped ferry tens of thousands of desperate passengers out of the country and brought in vital humanitarian aid. And it has done so from the country’s only commercial airport in south Beirut, which is located uncomfortably close to areas that Israel has fiercely bombarded in recent weeks.<br/>