Libya and Italy to Resume Flights After a Decade-Old Ban

Italy has lifted a 10-year-long ban on Libyan civil aviation using Italian airspace, with flights due to resume from September, the Libyan government said on Sunday.

There are currently few airlines operating flights in and out of Libya, a country that has suffered more than a decade of chaos and conflict since Muammar Gaddafi’s downfall in 2011.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni informed her Libyan counterpart Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah of the decision on Sunday, the Libyan government said in a statement.

The decision was announced after a meeting between Libyan and Italian officials and after technical teams from both sides had discussed the results of a field visit in May related “to checking safety procedures at Libyan airports”, it said.

Flights out of Libya have long been limited to destinations such as Tunisia, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and Sudan, with the European Union banning Libyan civil aviation from its airspace.

Libyan and Italian authorities agreed that flights would be operated by one carrier from each country, the statement said.

(Writing by Adam Makary in Cairo and Tom Perry in Beirut; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Alexander Smith)

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