“My mediation efforts to solve the issue have failed. The pilots and the MEA management could not reach an agreement on all outstanding issues,” the Minister said.

Harb said he hopes that this meeting will work as a drive to find new solutions for the dispute, “let it be somewhere outside his office, and even not in his presence.”

“I hope both parts do not escalate or take steps that could have negative impacts, especially in light of the expected promising summer season.” “We do not want the MEA to be ousted from this economic cycle,” the Minister said.

Harb said that the issue is of national interest, as the “MEA airlines is a national enterprise that belongs to the people.” “I leave it to the Ministry of Public Works to take appropriate measures to solve the issue.. After all, this ministry is the one responsible for the air transport sector,” the Minister said.

When asked whether the airline will suspend its flights in the light of a second-pilot strike, Mohamad Hout, MEA’s chairman said “Inshallah, we will not be forced to do that.”

"We, and the pilots form one family. We are all aware of our responsibilities and I don’t think that this facility will be forced to stop from working,” he said.

Harb said he hopes “not to reach a stage where the company will be forced to take certain measures because the airline is Lebanese, it carries the Lebanese flag, and its pilots should be Lebanese.” “I hope the Cedar tree brings us together and not  separates us apart,” he said.

Mahmoud Houmani, the head of the Association of Pilots (LPA), said that the LPA will negotiate with its members the future steps. “We may organize a press conference soon to talk on the matter,” Houmani said.