For the second consecutive year, Middle East Airlines (MEA) had held its Digital Networking Event. In 2017, the meeting was held in Sharm El Sheikh - Egypt. This year, the meeting was held in Izmir - Turkey. I was very lucky to be one of MEA's 116 guests for this year trip.
Arriving to Raffic Hariri International Airport at Beirut, MEA had allocated a special check-in counters for today's trip to Izmir. We were warmly welcomed by MEA's ground staff and MEA's Head of Public Relations.
Boarding passes were issued quickly, I was also lucky to get a window seat (25F) since our plane is full.
After check-in, we cleared the passport control, and head to MEA's Cedar Lounge which is located in the first floor above the duty free shops.
The Cedar Lounge was opened for the first time in August 2005, it was renovated in February 2018.
The lounge has a generous varieties of food and beverage offerings. Since it was 10:30 a.m, most food served were breakfast items that varied from pastries, cheese assortments, Labbneh (yogurt), breakfast hot dishes, sweets, sugar free items
Some archeological artifacts were available for sighting at the Cedar Lounge
View of the tarmac for "plane spotters":
USB charging slots were available everywhere in the lounge, and even embedded in the seats & chairs:
Fresh coffee is always served, in addition to wide variety of soft cold beverages
A wide variety of alcoholic beverage is available:
MEA's A320 just landed from Amman - Jordan:
Now, the time for really some fun… "Boarding Time".
We boarded our new A320 from gate 21. This plane was delivered new to MEA in 2016 and it is registered T7-MRF
A view from my seat:
Before take-off, and since it was a little bit hot, the cabin crew served us chilled juice. I opted for the orange.. Perrrrfecto.
Take off was very smooth and soon we reached our flight level of FL360
Soon the cabin crew initiated the inflight service, there was a choice of either beef, chicken, or fish.
Surprisingly, although we were travelling in Economy class, MEA served us the meals using business class dishes and silver cutlery, and although the trip is pretty short (1 hr and 30 mins), however, the cabin crew were extremely professional and managed to serve all 116 passengers promptly.
The meal consisted of the following:
Quinoa Salmon salad served as an appetizer
The main chicken dish served with rice and oregano.
Crackers, butter, and a cheese platter were also served
A bag of knuckles nuts was served
And a chocolate cake was served
As for drinks, open alcoholic beverages were served, in addition to soft drinks, coffee, and tea.
My neighbor passenger opted for the beef choice. He described his meal as the best beef platter ever he had
I traced our flight path on the personal inflight entertainment screen which is available for each passenger
Soon we started our approach to Izmir, the scenery was amazing:
We landed on runway 34, and parked at gate 31. Below is our landing video:
Our CedarJet A320 plane standing at the gate 31
Dedicated baggage belt:
Finally, once again, a report that also deals extensively with the catering
and this also describes comprehensible. The evaluation is understandable.
I would like to read more such reports and not the usual shallow reports.
I thank the author many times. Keep it up ! Thank you!