A meeting was held at the Libyan Airports Authority Tripoli headquarters yesterday with representatives of the American company Culmen International, attended by the Head of the Airports Authority, Mohamed Bait al-Mal and Director General of Sebha Airport, Al-Tahir Abu Al-Gasim and several office directors and department heads in the Airports Authority.
It will be recalled that Culmen has been providing training and consultancy to Libya’s Airports Authority since at least 2021.
On Monday, Culmen attended the symposium held in Tripoli entitled ‘‘Preparing for the International (ICAO) Audit Programme on Libya in the Field of Civil Aviation’’.
At the symposium it was announced that that the Italian Airlines will start flights to Tripoli at the end of November within the airliner’s winter calendar.
During the symposium, Tripoli based Libyan prime minister, Abd Alhamid Aldabaiba’s said he expected Tripoli International Airport, currently under construction by Italian consortium Aeneas, to reopen in the middle of 2024.
He said Libya was holding talks with Turkish and Qatar Airways to resume their flights to and from Libya.
It was also stated at the symposium that lifting the air embargo is considered one of the most important goals of the Aldabaiba government because it will have a positive impact on attracting foreign influx and thereby enhancing the reality of sustainable development in Libya.
ICAO is expected to begin its audit in March 2024 with the aim of lifting the air embargo imposed on Libya, it was announced at the symposium.
Part of fulfilling ICAO’s conditions and the conditions of several visiting foreign aviation inspection teams is the improving the performance of Libyan airports’ staff through training to international standards. Culmen was part of this training endeavour.
Significantly contributed to strengthening security procedures at Libyan airports
At the Airports Authority meeting with Culmen yesterday, the head of the Authority thanked Culmen for the many training programmes that were implemented for airport employees during the past years, whether outside or inside Libya, which, the Authority reported, he said had significantly contributed to strengthening security procedures and measures at Libyan airports.
Training to prepare for ICAO’s audit
The current relations with Culmen and ways to consolidate them were also discussed and the possibility of contributing to the implementation of additional training programmes for the Authority’s employees specializing in the operational aspect of airports. The Authority said this was especially since there are four major airports that will be audited by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) during the year 2024.
Training for Sebha airport
The Airports Authority reported that the possibility of conducting additional training for the Authority’s cadres in the field of security was also discussed, especially for the employees of Sebha Airport. This was to consider the exceptional circumstances that the airport has gone through during the past years, which caused its employees to not receive adequate training programmes like other major airports.
Finally, the Airports Authority said it was agreed during the meeting to start implementing training programmes dedicated to Sebha Airport to include the largest number of employees and according to the actual need. It was also agreed to include training programmes specializing in the operation and maintenance of security devices and equipment used at airports, including automatic detection and inspection devices and security monitoring systems, in addition to agreeing to provide the Authority with the necessary spare parts to maintain devices for detecting traces of explosives.
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