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Flying in Circles
Posted on July 7th, 2009 13 comments
A Canadian city is hoping to establish direct flights to Beirut:
Windsor is lobbying to be part of a new jet passenger service from Canada to the Middle East hub of Beirut, Lebanon, a route that at least three international airlines are interested in flying.
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Mayor Eddie Francis said there is interest by Lebanon-based Middle East Airlines in a new Canadian route that would start in Windsor and make a stopover in Montreal, which handles an additional 30,000 annual passengers to Beirut.Could we be heading on the same flight path again? Think back to 2003. Here, let me help you:
On March 7, 2003, Air Canada announces direct flights between Beirut and Montreal stating in June. A day before the first flight from Montreal, the Canadian Transportation Agency revoked the license it granted the airline in March.
It turns out that the US had its hand in the decision fearing that a direct flight from Beirut would give terrorists easy access to North America (or so the rumor mill spewed). Of course it really made no sense why a direct route to North America would be a greater threat than a stop-over in London, Paris, Amsterdam or Dubai but the Powers That Be made their decision then, we’ll have to wait and see if they reinforce it this time around.
Coming Soon to an Beirut Airport Near You?
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13 responses to “Flying in Circles”
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I was very disappointed when they canceled those flights in 2003. It would have made it so much easier for Lebanese in the Ottawa/Montreal areas. Anyways hope this gets changed.
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It sure would be great if the legal and security hurdles are cleared. Too bad there were no direct flights during the elections, the airlines would have made a killing.
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You know, I used to think that MEA et al.(Berri) had a hand in the cancellation of 2003 because all the people who live in Montreal/Ottawa/Toronto areas would have taken these Air Canada’s flights instead of going through Europe then taking MEA. I’m not sure but that was the talk circulating at that time.
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Really? That does sound quite interesting. The information I had was based on Canadian press reports that security issues were behind the decision.
http://www.allbusiness.com/operations/shipping-air-freight/559912-1.html
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i think we will see a new wave of talking about the YUL-BEY route this up coming winter for an early summer start,but if it happens and we get aproval i dont think it will be from windsor as mentioned above,aircanada can fill up that flight easy just from our montreal and ottawa community.!!!!
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Hi rauf, I agree. I think Windsor may have gotten ahead of itself. MEA might have been poking around and they thought that they’ve reeled in the big fish. I do honestly think that it’s time that Air Canada reopens its direct flights to Beirut. Anecdotal information shows that it would be quite successful.
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Imad Aoun November 25th, 2009 at 00:37
Hello all
It will be nice to have a direct flight, however the US will not allow such a flight because they are afraid of Hizbollah. The Lebanese community in Detroit is trying to negotiate a deal to allow MEA to have a direct flight to Beirut, but they are not getting anywhere and the answer from The FAA is always no.
in the mean time enjoy your 9 hours connections in Europe -
good point Jad, but for now for us living in eastern canada and beirut offcourse Air Canada made it so easy for connection in europe especially the new montreal-geneva connect to MEA geneva-beirut and the future toronto-athens this summer too.it is just around an hour connection,
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Hi Imad, Thanks for the comment. But what I am trying to understand is what is the difference between stopping over in Europe over directly flying into the US. Isn’t the immigration process at the end the same? Also, you really don’t need to fly into Europe. Flyover to the UAE or Qatar and you can fly direct to LA, NYC, Chicago or DC. Royal Jordanian flies direct to the US. MEA flies three times a day to Amman. More than enough connections to catch a flight to the US. So what’s the problem?
Hey rauf, that’s great news. I wonder if this came out from the decision to allow Canadian carriers to code-share with their Lebanese counterparts.
Also, I would like to apologize to all everyone for the 5 or so comment spams that this post attracted – haven’t yet figured out why they got through the filters. I’ll make sure to keep a close eye out on the issue.
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Imad Aoun December 9th, 2009 at 00:41
Jad
When a passenger board a flight from Europe to the US or Canada, they must deal with Immigration twice one in Europe and the second time is at the port of entry. Both time the immigration is either US or Canadian.
However when you leave BEY direct to the Us or Canada, you deal first with the Lebanese immigration then the port of entry.
Here is the sticky part, Both Canada and the US has no faith in the Lebanese goverment,and BEY airport do not allow foreign immigration on the ground. This leave the flight wide open since as we all know everything goes at the Lebanese airport. I boarded the BMI flight in beirut with a knife in my back pack ( by mistake ) and they never caught it.
let’s hope things will get better, since Air Canada is giving Lebanon anohter try this year ( told by a ticketing agent).
in the meantime, enjoy your 23 hours connection at the UAE.-
Well Imad, I am still not buying that excuse. I flew to Amsterdam from Beirut on KLM back in 2003. As soon as we touched down at the airport, every single passenger had to go through metal detectors and our carry-on baggage was screened. Once Lebanese passenger asked the security personnel there, “We were screened in Beirut, why are we being screened again”. He replied in a thick Dutch accent, “How do we know you weren’t screened by Usama Bin Laden’s brother?”
So basically the Dutch have [or had, don't know if this is still the case] a problem with Lebanese security screeners. So they had two choices, ban direct flights to and from Beirut, or address their security themselves. The US or Canada are more than capable of doing the same thing. If they are worried about cost, they can charge it to the airlines.
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Imad Aoun December 16th, 2009 at 06:09
Hello Jad
you have a point here.
However, how do you feel when some awaful person step off the plane in YUL and start to shoot people becasue he was not screened properly by the authority in BEy or he know someone who let him bring weapons on the plane.
Please do not tell me that these things does not happen in lebanon. I love my country but we are far from being law abiding citizens.-
Well now it appears we’ve got talk on direct flights to the US: Heads in the Clouds
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Serpico July 9th, 2009 at 22:51