Startup Mada Airways
to debut from Kleyat airport

Will launch with two Embraer aircraft

Start-up Mada Airways is preparing to launch scheduled commercial operations from René Moawad Airport in Kleyat, according to CEO Imad Raad. The airline plans to operate two aircraft, an Embraer 170 with a capacity of 80 passengers and an Embraer 190 that can accommodate nearly 100 passengers.

Mada Airways is awaiting both its air operator certificate and the rehabilitation works at René Moawad Airport in Kleyat (KYE), from which it intends to operate exclusively. The company is the first new Lebanese-registered commercial airline to emerge since 1969.

Its launch follows the expiration earlier this year of the exclusivity arrangement that had granted flag carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) a monopoly over Lebanon's commercial aviation sector for more than five decades. The agreement had prevented other airlines from registering as Lebanese commercial carriers, although it did not restrict foreign airlines from serving the Lebanese market.

Mada Airways is a sister company of IBEX Air Charter, a private jet and charter operator with operations in Beirut and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. IBEX Air Charter is wholly owned by IBEX Holding, whose shareholders are Ahmad Abdelhussein Hajje (85 percent), journalist Dima Ali Sadek (ten percent), and their daughter Yasmine Hajje (five percent).