Middle East Airlines - Air Liban (MEA), the flag carrier of Lebanon, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for five A320neo and five A321neo aircraft plus eight options. MEA will announce its engine choice at a later date.

"MEA is focused on continuing to grow and improving its profitability at the same time as offering its passengers a very luxurious service," said MEA Chairman-Director General, Mohamad El Hout. "Adding the A320neo to our fleet means we can achieve all of these goals while benefitting from a 15 percent fuel saving and cost effectiveness."

"We thank MEA for their continued confidence in Airbus and are confident that this order for our fuel efficient A320neo will put them ahead of the competition," said John Leahy, Airbus Chief Operating Officer, Customers. "We're looking forward to seeing MEA's A320neo's operating seamlessly alongside their current generation A320 Family and delivering them with savings through reduced maintenance and pilot training costs that come from the high degree of commonality between the models."

MEA operates one of the most modern fleets in the Middle East region with four A330-200s, four A321s and nine A320s.

The A320neo Family is a new engine option for the A320 Family entering into service from late 2015 and incorporates latest generation engines and large "Sharklet" wing tip devices, which together will deliver up to 15 percent in fuel savings. The A320neo NOx emissions are 50 percent below CAEP/6 and this aircraft also has a considerably smaller noise footprint. Over 8,500 A320 Family aircraft have been ordered and more than 5,100 delivered to 365 customers and operators worldwide.

Contributed by Airbus S.A.S.