By Libya Herald reporter.
Malta, 18 February 2015:
Egypt closed its airspace yesterday to Libyan flights, preventing Libyan planes from flying to two . . .[restrict]of their busiest destinations, Istanbul and Amman, Jordan.
The decision to prevent Libyan planes entering Egyptian airspace was taken unilaterally and was not previously announced.
The first that the Libyan authorities knew of the decision was when yesterday morning a Libyan Airlines flight from Tripoli’s Mitiga airport headed to Istanbul was forced to return about an hour into its flight.
The Egyptians airspace closure was connected to their military air raids on alleged IS targets within Libya.
However, today, a flight did take off from Mitiga to Alexandria transiting through Al-Beida’s Labrak airport. It has also returned taking the same route.
Today, Afriquiyah has announced that its flights will resume tomorrow to Istanbul, but they will be transiting via Al- Beida’s Labrak airport
Flights to Casablanca, however, are still suspended by a decision taken by the Moroccan authorities.
It will be recalled that Libyan registered flights are banned from entering EU airspace and are unable to fly over Cyprus or Greece en route to Istanbul, and therefore need to pass through Egyptian airspace. [/restrict]
