By Tom Westcott.
24 October 2014:
Western Libyan airspace has now been fully reopened, allowing international flights to overfly the west of the . . .[restrict]country for the first time in three months.
“We have the capability and it is safe now to overfly in the West. There are no issues,” The Director General of the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority (LYCAA) Captain Nasereddin Shaebelain told the Libya Herald. “But of course, anyone wishing to overfly still has to get the right permissions first.”
The air traffic control centre had closed Western Libyan airspace when fighting broke out at Tripoli International Airport in July, he said, and the restrictions on overflying the country had been kept in place for three months. “The control centre was always working although we asked Malta to help with some special cases such as issuing instructions when we had some problems. But it is all working normally now.”
Eastern Libyan airspace remains closed for overflying, with the area control centre not fully-functional at present. “We hope this can be sorted out as soon as possible, once things settle down,” Shaebelain said. “We are restarting everything very slowly.”
Future aviation plans include looking at what to do with the damaged Tripoli international Airport. Assessments of the airport are now understood to be in the final stages and a full report is expected next week. The Airports Authority – a government agency responsible for Libya’s airports – will then make a decision on the future of Tripoli International Airport – whether to reconstruct the existing buildings or build a new temporary terminal. [/restrict]
