In a first in 10 years, Italy lifts its ban on Libyan civil flights
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni informs her Libyan counterpart Abdulhamid Dbeibah of the decision during a meeting between the two officials.
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Italian PM Giorgia Meloni and the head of Libya’s Government of National Unity, Abdulhamid Dbeibah, attend a joint news conference in Tripoli, Libya January 28, 2023. (AFP)
On Sunday, the Libyan government announced that Italy has lifted a 10-year ban on Libyan civil aviation using Italian airspace. Flights are set to resume in September. This decision comes as a positive development for Libya, as there are currently few airlines operating flights in and out of the country due to the prolonged period of chaos and conflict since the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni informed her Libyan counterpart Abdulhamid Dbeibah of the decision during a meeting between the two officials. The decision was made after technical teams from both countries conducted a field visit in May to assess the safety procedures at Libyan airports.
Previously, flights out of Libya were limited to destinations such as Tunisia, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, and Sudan. The European Union had banned Libyan civil aviation from its airspace. However, with the lifting of the ban, Libyan and Italian authorities have agreed that flights will be operated by one carrier from each country.
It is worth noting that Italy, a former colonizer of Libya, has lately increased its trade with the African country to a large extent, especially in energy where Italy and EU countries have been scrambling to find alternatives to Russian energy since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Rome also aims to act as an intermediary of energy trade between northern Europe and Africa in the upcoming years, thus they aim to intensify their energy imports from African countries, such as Libya and Algeria, which are two of the most oil-rich African nations.
