Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah boarded a commercial flight from Rome’s Fiumicino airport, marking the first direct Libya-Italy flight in a decade. The flight successfully landed in Mitiga, the only operational airport in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
Following the Italian government’s decision to lift the 10-year ban on civil aviation in Libya, Prime Minister Dbeibah announced that Libyans would be able to book direct flights to Italy starting in September. This development is seen as a significant step towards improving relations and lifting the embargo on Libya.
Pierluigi Di Palma, President of the Italian Civil Aviation Authority, expressed optimism about the future of Libya-Italy Flights, stating that September would likely mark the resumption of commercial flights between the two nations. He also emphasized the importance of the Mediterranean Sea as a sea of peace.
The flight between Rome and Tripoli was hailed by the Italian prime minister’s office as a tangible sign of the direction the Italian government wants to take in its relations with Libya and the broader Mediterranean region.
Both Prime Ministers are allies in their efforts to address the issue of migration, seeking to curb the flow of migrants from Africa and the Middle East using Libya as a dominant transit point on their way to Europe. The resumption of direct flights is expected to facilitate better communication and cooperation between the two countries in tackling this complex challenge.
The Italian embassy in Tripoli confirmed discussions on the resumption of direct flights between the two countries during a visit by Pierluigi Di Palma, the head of the Italian Civil Aviation Authority, earlier this month. However, no further details were provided back then.
Libya has been striving to recover from more than a decade of turmoil since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011. Two rival governments have been vying for power: one based in Tripoli, led by Dbeibah, and the other in the East, supported by the influential Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
In 2014, a coalition of militias, including Islamists, known as “Fajr Libya,” took control of the capital after weeks of intense fighting and the near-complete destruction of Tripoli’s international airport. Since then, European countries had severed their connections with Libya, prohibited Libyan planes from landing, and closed their airspace to Libyan companies due to security concerns.
