Airlines from the United States can now once again fly to Lebanon… at least in theory. I have a hard time imagining that any airline will actually take advantage of this opportunity, though.
In this post:
US airlines can now once again fly to Lebanon
President Trump has announced that airlines from the United States can once again fly to Lebanon, following his meeting with Lebanon’s President, Joseph Aoun.
This represents the reversal of a policy that has been in place since 1985, following the hijacking of TWA flight number 847. This flight was enroute from Athens to Rome, and was forced to land in Beirut, in what dragged on to be a 17-day mess, leading to the death of one US Navy diver.
In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) shared that it “looks forward to working with airlines and our interagency partners to implement the President’s directive and support the safe return of flights to Lebanon.”
Will any US airline actually fly to Beirut, though?
It goes without saying that just because airlines can now fly to Lebanon doesn’t mean that they actually will.
As I see it, there’s both the short term and long term question of the viability of this kind of service. With everything going on right now, I can’t imagine this service would launch any time soon. US airlines aren’t flying to Tel Aviv right now, and Beirut service seems even riskier. For that matter, the US State Department has a “Do Not Travel” advisory for Lebanon.
Lebanon has certainly had some challenges and has changed over the years, and between demand, safety assessments, and getting unions onboard, this just seems like an uphill battle. If a US carrier were to launch this service, one would think that United would be the one to do so, given the extent to which the airline has a global route network.
Perhaps the wild card is whether an airline might want to launch this service to “please” Trump, given his narrative here. But again, with the current situation, I can’t imagine we’re anywhere close to such service being able to launch.
If we were to see nonstop flights between North America and Beirut, you’d think they’d either be on Middle East Airlines, or out of Canada on Air Canada.
Bottom line
President Trump has lifted the ban on US airlines flying to Lebanon, which has been in place since 1985, following a hijacking. So while some more preparations will need to take place, in theory airlines will once again have this opportunity. That’s not to say that they’ll actually take advantage of it, though, given all the hurdles that remain in place.
I think it’s a sure bet such service won’t launch any time soon. Could we see it many years down the road? Sure, maybe…
Do you think we’ll see any US airline fly to Lebanon? If so, with what timeframe?
Hard to imagine Beruit is suddenly safer than it has been any time in the last 41 years, particularly with an ongoing and particularly aggressive Israeli operation that has been hitting Beruit (city and suburbs) regularly.
Considering the Dump regime, almost certainly some gift was given or other offering made to the guy who can always be bought.
Sorry Ben no comments on a subject I know more about than the rude and obnoxious commenting people in here who know nothing about it.
Do you remove such folks from your platform?
Air Canada has not flown to Tel Aviv for a few years. Unlikely they will try Beirut.
More likely for MEA to fly Beirut to NY.
MEA doesn’t have the planes for it.
In theory DL could start a DTL-BEY route?
"MEA doesn’t have the planes for it."
MEA's incoming A330-900s could do BEY-NYC with no problem.
Detroit would be a bit more of a stretch, but taking the aircraft spec'ed above 245 tonnes should allow for it. Delta was able to do Seattle to Shanghai at that weight, without any major penalties, and the aircraft offers up to 6 additional tons of TOW if an airline wants to pay for it.
Except Tater only wants a US carrier to fly to BEY, he's not implying at all, that MEA should request rights to DTW or any other city, sadly. No, US carrier is going to even entertain the idea of flying their crews & multi-million dollar aircraft into a place where it's likely they'll be a target, there is little love for the USA there, not surprisingly, MEA would be a good way of expanding from BEY, but they can land without being shot at.
The majority of people don’t have a problem with the USA, they just don’t like the government and it’s policies.
Anyone know how much $Trump crypto President Aoun bought?
United shown because they’re going to find a way to fly this on a domestic 738
Too subtle.
You really need to unfurl that racist flag fully and let it FLY!
Is it a girl racist flag?
Couldn't be racist enough the first time you wrote it, so you had to do it again?
Nope.
Nah. We gay guys don't like Lebanese and they don't like...oops, sorry. Correction. We gay guys don't like lesbians and they don't like us. Lebanese guys I'm not sure about.
Who will stamp my passport? Israeli border guards or Hezbollah? Political play because everything else in the Middle East is going so well for this regime.
The Lebanese border agents at the airport will stamp it, you ignorant moron.
Must be you, 'cause this gay guy has several close lesbian friends, but I live where the lesbians roam free & there is no judgement, Oregon.
Lucky, are you sure that MEA was "able to operate all along" to the US? I thought that they were banned due to security issues with the BEY airport and that the US worked to block even AC flights fo BEY.
Beyond everything else, I'm not even convinced there's such a huge amount of demand. The logistics of a fifth-freedom side trip to BEY should be relatively easy for a US airline to manage as a way of minimising time on the ground at ATH or another European city, but I just cannot see it making them any money.
Most US to Europe flights with the exception of a few ones at LHR that RON operate a relatively efficient and quick turn. So I fear this wouldn’t work either.
Not going to happen any time soon among US airlines that's for sure.