ITA airways resumes flights to Libya's Tripoli after 10-year gap

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Italy's ITA Airways resumed direct flights to Libya's Tripoli on Sunday, the first airline from a major west European nation to do so after a 10-year hiatus due to civil war in the north African country, ITA and Tripoli's transport minister said.

ITA said it would operate two direct flights a week from Rome's Fiumicino airport to Tripoli's Mitiga airport.

“We are proud to inaugurate today our first direct commercial flight between Tripoli and Rome Fiumicino, strengthening commercial and cultural ties between Libya and Italy in support of bilateral relations between the two countries,” Andrea Benassi, ITA airways general manager, said in a statement.

Many international airlines have suspended flights in and out of Libya since the civil war in 2014 that spawned two rival administrations in east and west following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Some airlines resumed flights to Libya after security was restored when major fighting paused with a ceasefire in 2020. But efforts to end the political crisis have failed, with factions occasionally staging armed clashes and competing for control over economic resources.

The European Union still bans Libyan civil aviation from its airspace

The minister of transport in the government of national unity, Mohamed al-Shahoubi, said the resumption of ITA flights between Tripoli and Rome confirmed "the safety and security of our airspace and the eligibility of Libyan airports".

Shahoubi said at a ceremony marking the arrival of the ITA flight at Mitiga that Tripoli is ready "to grant ITA additional transport rights to connect Libyan airports with other destinations in European Union countries."

Libya is looking forward to the return of Royal Air Maroc, Qatar Airways and Saudi Airlines in the first half of 2025, Shahoubi added.

He added that the airlines of Tunisia, Egypt, Malta, Turkey, and Jordan had already resumed direct flights with Libya. 

Ivan Bassato, chief aviation officer of Rome's airports, said the Libya route was a strategic bridge between the two countries.

Flights would strengthen "the positioning of our hub to support the connectivity of Africa, a continent that in 2024 reached a record level exceeding the threshold of 2 million passengers to and from Rome, up 38% compared to the previous year”.

(Reporting and writing by by Ahmed Elumami; additional reporting by Angelo Amante in Rome; editing by Giles Elgood)