By Libya Herald staff.
Tunis, 17 October 2017:
A team set up by the Ministry of Communications and the Airports Authority visited the military airbase at Bani Walid yesterday to assess plans to use it as a civil airport.
It is proposed that part or all of the airbase be transferred to the Airports Authority, although it will still be available for military use.
The team, which also included a number of local officials, looked in particular at the infrastructure and technical needs that will have to be installed before it can operate as a civil airport.
Local people in Bani Walid feel uncomfortable about flying via the airport at Misrata, the town’s historic rival, while traveling from Tripoli also presents its own dangers. As a result, the local authorities had been pushing for the past four years to convert the airbase. Approval was given by the Thinni government in 2014 before it had to flee Tripoli and construction of an airport terminal was begun. However, it was destroyed in a bomb attack last year. No one was injured and no one has since been formally accused of responsibility.
