By Sami Zaptia.
London, 8 March 2021:
A Maltese Civil Aviation delegation visited Tripoli’s Mitiga airport on Saturday (6 March).
This visit comes within the framework of coordination to resume flights between Libya and Malta, the LAA reported.
The inspection visit of the airport [restrict paid=”true”] was a follow-up on observations made by the Maltese during their last visit in August last year.
The Maltese delegation, the LAA reports, also held a meeting with representatives of some security authorities operating at the airport during which the operational procedures and security measures taken at the airport for leaving and receiving flights were discussed. The extent of compliance with the application of international standards recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organization were also clarified, the LAA added.
It will be recalled that the LAA had reported on 3 August that a specialist delegation from the Maltese Civil Aviation Authority had visited Mitiga airport to ‘‘inspect and evaluate the airport and its facilities and determine the possibility of operating scheduled commercial flights between Libya and Malta’’.
During the visit, the Maltese delegation conducted an inspection tour of some airport facilities, including the passenger terminal, baggage screening area, air control tower, aircraft parking lot and the perimeter fence, in addition to checking the automatic baggage checks and identifying the procedures to be followed by passengers from arrival at the airport until leaving, in order to ensure that they conform to the recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
It will also be recalled that on October 28 last year, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Libya and Malta on cooperation in the field of aviation and maritime transport.
The MoU included an agreement to resume flights between the two countries through the Mediterranean Aviation Company (Medavia), provided that the necessary anti-Coronavirus pandemic measures are observed. Medavia is owned by the Libyan Foreign Investment Company.
The registration of one of Libyan Airlines’ aircraft in Malta, to circumvent the current EU Libya flight ban, as well as and the contribution of the Maltese institutions in raising the efficiency of Libyan cadres in the field of aviation and airports, was also agreed in the MoU. [/restrict]