Review of Middle East Airlines flight from Beirut to Cairo in Economy

It is November time, where we shall say goodbye for the summer and welcome the winter. My flight today will take me to visit my uncles in Cairo – Egypt, and the best way to do so is by flying MEA.
In fact the Beirut-Cairo sector is one of short sectors operated by MEA where the flight duration is barely one hour. Accordingly my flight details are as follows:
- Flight : ME304
- Aircraft : A321-231 (OD-RMI, delivered to MEA in 2003)
- STD/ATD : 8:30 / 8:30
- STA/ATA : 10:00 / 9:35
I reached the airport at 5:30 a.m. and although it is November, the Christmas spirit is in the air, and the Lebanese way of preparing for the Christmas season is reflected in the departure hall of the airport.

Then I headed to the Cedar Lounge, where I had my morning snack and had a view of tarmac. Pictures reveal sunrise over the Lebanese mountains and its reflection on the airport.

At 7:45 a.m. it was boarding time, I headed to the airplane which was an MEA A321 parked at gate 14 which is the same aircraft taken in the above pictures.

We started push-back and taxied to runway 21. During the taxi, I had some photos covering the traffic at OLBA.

Take-off was right-on-time i.e. at 8:30 a.m. We headed from runway 21 to waypoint KAD where our flight path will be as follows: KAD ? SILKO ? PASOS ? SISIM ? MELDO ? BLT ? HECA.

After reaching our cruising altitude of FL330, the meal service was initiated. Since this flight is barely an hour, there will be no hot meal. However, in contrary to other airlines (European & American), MEA insist on serving its passengers something decent. So being a Lebanese airline, the meal for this sector will be a typical healthy Lebanese dish composed of Labbneh (Yogurt with olive oil) served with assortment of cheese, juice, and tea. It is really tasteful, healthy and amazing just as if it is prepared at home. Remarkably MEA serve its meals with silver cutely even on short sectors and economy class. Moreover, MEA provides personal IFE for all passengers; however I was so tired to operate the IFE.

Soon, we started our descent to Cairo. These pictures show the airplane approach to the Egyptian cost until reaching Cairo.

Passing all over Cairo, we lined up for landing where the captain made a really soft touchdown at runway 5R and taxied to park on gate 33. We passed through a Saudi A320 preparing for take-off to Riyadh.

Views from my hotel :) Amazing Cairo

Egyptian Taxi :P