By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 30 August 2017:
Sebha Airport, closed for over two and a half years, is expected to resume flights after Eid. Reports that the civil aviation authority has given permission for flights have been confirmed by the town’s mayor, Hamed Rafeh.
“The airport is now officially open and ready for flights,” he told the Libya Herald. “We’re now waiting for Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah [Airways] to agree to restart. We’re hoping that will happen after Eid.”
On its Facebook page, the Libyan airports authority called on airlines to restart national and international flights in and out of Sebha. However, initially it said, these will only be allowed to operate during daylight hours.
People were having to use the airports at Brak, 60 kilometres to the north Al-Shatti, or Obari, some 175 kilometres to the west, he said. Both have flights to Tripoli’s Mitiga airport.
It was widely also reported that weekly Libyan Airways flights between Obari and Benghazi’s Benina were starting last Sunday, but this has been denied by Benina spokesman Usama Ben Mansour. It was not true, he told this newspaper. However, there was a likelihood of there being a weekly flight starting after Eid, he added.
After Sebha was closed, flights were transferred to nearby Tamenhint airbase 35 kilometres north-east of the town, but these stopped at the beginning of the year as a result of fighting there between Misratan and Libyan National Army forces.
