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By Salem Ali
Tripoli, 2 March 2015:
Libyan Airlines have resumed direct flights from Mitiga airport to Istanbul and Amman. For the past . . .[restrict]fortnight they and Afriqiyah Airways have had to land en route at Labraq or Tobruk airports after Egypt closed its airspace to direct flights from either Mitiga or Misrata airports. The first Libyan Airline flight to Istanbul departed yesterday.
“Airlines carriers have obtained an approval to pass through a certain route of EU airspace,” an official at Mitiga told the Libya Herald.
“Libyan Airlines and Ghadames Air have already started flying directly but Afriqiyah Airways will obtain permission on Wednesday” he said.
“Moreover,” the official also claimed, “we have very good news for Libyans that flights from Tripoli to Tunis will open next week”. He added, too, that talks were taking place with the Algerian authorities to resume flights between Algiers and Tripoli.
Contrary to the statements, the EU has not re-opened its airspace to Libya aircraft and still does not allow aircraft originating in Libya to land at European airports for security purposes. It does, however, allow Libya carriers to access the airspace providing they use aircraft wet-leased from an acceptable operator.
Ghadames Air has, in fact, continued operating direct flights to Istanbul flying through Greek airspace using a wet-leasing aircraft.
Reports that flights between Mitiga and Tunisia will restart were last week denied by the Tunisian civil aviation authorities. [/restrict]
