Afriqiyah, Libyan Airlines could resume European flights by March

Afriqiyah Airways and Libyan Arab Airlines could resume flights to Europe using their own metal as early as March this year, the Director General of the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority (LYCAA) has said. Speaking in Tripoli, Captain Nasereddin Shaebelain said a verification team from the European Union was now in the country to assess the state of the country's civil aviation industry. He underlined that Libya's ban was self-imposed in 2011 and did not cover the country as a whole, but rather applied to individual carriers. As such, he added, any resumption of flights to Europe would depend on the individual company conforming to EU specified standards. Since 2011, both Libyan national carriers have opted to use wet-leased Tunisair (TU, Tunis), Nouvelair (BJ, Monastir) and Air Moldova (9U, Chisinau) aircraft to cover their European-bound flights to Rome Fiumicino, Malta, Manchester Int'l, Madrid Barajas, London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Frankfurt Int'l and Dusseldorf.
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