Mohamed Artima
February 16, 2021•Update: February 16, 2021
TRIPOLI
Libyan Airlines announced Monday that it will resume flights from Tripoli to Alexandria, Egypt after a roughly one-year hiatus.
"The first flights of Libyan Airlines will operate from Tripoli to Burj al-Arab airport in Alexandria starting next Thursday," the airlines’ spokesman Muhammad Qeniwa, told Anadolu Agency.
Qeniwa said, "the schedule of the flights to Alexandria includes two flights from Tripoli [Saturday and Tuesday] and three flights from Benghazi [Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday] per week."
Libyan Airlines suspended its flights to Egypt In November 2019 due to the forced landing of one of its planes taking off from Benina International Airport in Benghazi by forces loyal to Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar.
Last Wednesday, a Libyan Airlines plane landed at Benina airport from Tripoli to resume flight operations between the two cities after a hiatus of nearly two years.
Until 2014, Egyptian delegations visited Tripoli and met with Libyan officials, but the visits were cut off after forces loyal to Haftar were expelled from the capital.
Libya's rival political groups agreed last Friday to form an interim unity government to lead the country to elections this December.
Mohammad Younes Menfi was elected president of the interim setup with Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh as prime minister.
*Bassel Barakat contributed to this report from Ankara.
