By Libya Herald reporter.
Malta, 5 February 2015:
Afriqiyah Airways has announced today that it has suspended its European flights due to the security . . .[restrict]situation in Libya.
Afriqiyah said that the terror attack on the Corinthia hotel and the resultant death of the two Buraq Air cabin staff, as well as the attack on the UNSMIL HQ in Tripoli led to a number of countries advising their citizens to leave Libya immediately.
These countries included Georgia, the country Afriqiyah had wet-leased its two aircraft servicing its European routes from.
The statement said that Georgia had requested that its cabin crew operating its leased plane covering the European routes leave Libya immediately or the cabin crew’s licence/registration would be withdrawn by the Georgian Civil Aviation Authority for the sake of their safety.
As a result, the statement continued, Afriqiyah announces the temporary suspension of its European routes to Dusseldorf and Rome. This suspension comes after the company had succeeded in operating its Dusseldorf rout for one return flight, however, the security situation did not allow the continuation of further European flights.
It will be recalled that the planned Rome flight was never activated and was scheduled in the days just after the Corinthia attack.
The statement concluded that the airliner is still continuing to reach agreements or to find alternatives in order to continue the European routes. [/restrict]