By Sami Zaptia.
London, 16 November 2020:
Libyan Airlines, one of Libya’s state airliners, resumed return flights from Tripoli’s Mitiga airport to Tunis Carthage airport today. The resumption comes after an eight-month hiatus due to the Corona pandemic.
Libyan Airlines said it will operate three flights per week.
Passengers must follow strict anti-Coronavirus health protocol agreed between Libya and Tunisia, including a negative PCR test.
The resumption of today’s flight comes on the back of the reopening of land and air borders on Saturday (14 October) within the Health Protocol agreed by the two countries on 21 October in Tunis.
The land border reopened on Saturday. It will be recalled that an active section of Tunisians residing near the Tunisian-Libyan border have been demonstrating and blockading the road to the border crossing to prevent Tunisian goods from entering Libya. They were protesting because they could not travel to Libya to engage in passenger-carried trade and missed the business brought by Libyan tourists. This region has depended on cross-border legal and illegal trade for decades.
Libya is still under an EU sky embargo, it will be recalled, and the only flights that have been active are those to Istanbul since July this year
In October, Libya announced the resumption of flights to Egypt and Sudan in November.
On 28 October the Libyan Airports Authority reported that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 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.
https://www.libyaherald.com/2020/10/27/afriqiyah-to-resume-flights-to-alexandria-and-khartoum-in-november/
https://www.libyaherald.com/2020/07/24/libya-wings-confirms-resumption-of-one-way-flights-misrata-istanbul-as-of-26-july/
https://www.libyaherald.com/2020/07/25/following-libyan-wings-afriqiyah-and-buraq-airlines-announce-restart-of-one-way-flights-to-istanbul/
https://www.libyaherald.com/2020/10/29/libya-and-malta-sign-transport-mou-allowing-for-medavia-flight-resumption-and-maltese-registration-of-libyan-carrier/
https://www.libyaherald.com/2020/10/24/tunisia-approves-reopening-of-libya-land-border-to-passengers/
https://www.libyaherald.com/2020/10/23/3000-tonnes-of-fruit-exported-by-sea-freight-from-tunisia-to-libya-in-october/
https://www.libyaherald.com/2020/09/25/tunisian-fruit-shipments-to-libya-continue-by-sea-freight-as-land-border-trade-remains-blocked/
