A decade-long break in flights directly between Italy and one of its former colonies, Libya, has finally ended after Libyan Prime Minister, Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, flew from Fiumicino Airport in Rome to Tripoli.
The flight landed in Mitiga, the only functioning airport in the Libyan capital.
Dbeibah said that Libyans could book direct flights to Italy in September after the Italian government agreed to lift a 10-year-long ban on civil aviation in the North African nation.
“Commercial flights for citizens will start in September, God willing. Of course, we still have a lot of work ahead of us,” said Dbeibah.
“But there is no doubt that what we have achieved today will greatly help the issue of lifting the embargo.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office hailed the ITA flight as another tangible sign that the government in Rome wants to improve its relations with Libya and with the states of the broader Mediterranean region
Pierluigi Di Palma, President of the Italian Civil Aviation Authority said: “Next September I think it will be possible to have Libyan flights to Italy.
“I think that today is an important day for all. The Mediterranean Sea is the sea of peace.”
Libya is a dominant transit point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East trying to make it to the “old continent”, which was one of the factors which prolonged its isolation.
In addition, the troubled recent history it had under the late Muammar Gaddafi turned Libya into a pariah state for Western countries.
It was in a de facto civil war for some time which made its skies too dangerous for civil aviation.
