BEIRUT - Speaking to Radio Lebanon, Middle East Airline (MEA) chairman Mohammad Hout declared that “the global financial crisis had a limited effect on the national carrier”. 

But he said that MEA had decided to delay listing part of the company's shares on Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) as a result of the poor market conditions. 

MEA was supposed to list 25 percent of the airline's shares on the BSE in the beginning of 2009 as part of an effort to privatize the carrier. 

The company lost over $400 million from 1980 to 2000 because of bad management, overstaffing and the high cost of operations. Then the chairman had cancelled flight destinations that were not profitable and reduced the staff and closed dozens of offices around the world. 

Mohammad Hout said now, most of MEA's profits are used to cover the losses that were incurred by the company over the past two decades.

MEA, which is mostly controlled by the Central Bank, recorded a net profit of $60 million in 2007 and expects this figure to rise to $70 million in 2008.