ITA Airways has resumed flights to Tripoli, Libya, following a lapse of ten years

After a 10-year break owing to the civil war in the north African nation, Italy’s ITA Airways restarted direct flights to Tripoli, Libya, on Sunday, becoming the first airline from a major west European country to do so, according to the transport ministers of both Tripoli and Italy.

ITA announced that it would run two weekly direct flights between the airports in Tripoli’s Mitiga and Rome’s Fiumicino.

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

Since the civil conflict in 2014, which resulted in two opposing governments in the east and west after the NATO-backed revolt that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, many foreign airlines have halted flights into and out of Libya.

When significant violence halted with a truce in 2020, security was restored, and some airlines started operating again to Libya. However, despite periodic military conflicts and rivalry for control of financial resources, attempts to resolve the political problem have failed.

Libyan civil aviation is still prohibited from using EU airspace.

“The safety and security of our airspace and the eligibility of Libyan airports” were reaffirmed by the ITA flights between Tripoli and Rome, according to Mohamed al-Shahoubi, minister of transportation in the government of national unity.

At a ceremony commemorating the ITA flight’s landing in Mitiga, Shahoubi stated that Tripoli is prepared “to grant ITA additional transport rights to connect Libyan airports with other destinations in European Union countries.”

According to Shahoubi, Libya anticipates the return of Saudi Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Royal Air Maroc in the first half of 2025.

He stated that direct flights between Libya and the airlines of Tunisia, Egypt, Malta, Turkey, and Jordan have already been restored.

The Libya route, according to Ivan Bassato, chief aviation officer of Rome’s airports, is a vital link between the two nations.

The flights would improve “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.”