Libyan Airlines - History

History

The airline was established in 1964 as Kingdom of Libya Airlines, and the first revenue flights took place in October 1965. From the beginning, it concentrated on providing services from Tripoli and Benghazi to Europe and the neighboring countries of Libya, as well as operating a multitude of domestic routes. By 1968, the international network included destinations like Athens, Beirut, Cairo, Geneva, London, Paris, Rome or Tunis, which were served using either Caravelle or Fokker F27 aircraft. There were interline agreements with Alitalia, Middle East Airlines and BOAC.

Following the rule in Libya having been taken over by Muammar Gaddafi in 1969, the airline was renamed Libyan Arab Airlines (commonly abbreviated LAA). During the 1970s, Boeing 727s for short-haul routes and Boeing 707s for long-haul flights became the backbone of the fleet, allowing for a growing route network. Until 1986, flights to European destinations like Amsterdam, Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, Prague, Sofia, Vienna, Warsaw and Zurich had been commenced, as well as to Algiers, Khartoum, Kuwait and Karachi.

The airline suffered a setback due to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 748, which was adopted on 31 March 1992 as a consequence of the Libyan government allegedly having supported the terrorists responsible for the bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 (on 21 December 1988) and UTA Flight 772 (on 19 September 1989). The resolution saw a trade embargo being imposed on Libya, which included the delivery of aircraft supply, and Libyan Airlines was denied any landing or overflight rights of third-party countries. Thus, all international flights came to an end, and LAA could only operate on domestic routes. As the company was unable to receive spare parts for its then fleet of Boeing, Douglas, Airbus and Lockheed airliners, Soviet built aircraft of the types Ilyushin Il-76 and Tupolev Tu-154 were acquired.

When the trade sanctions were lifted in early 1999, Libyan Arab Airlines could rebuilt its international network, and order new aircraft from manufacturers like Airbus, Bombardier or ATR. Amman became the first non-domestic destination to be served again. Fleet and route network grew further when regional carrier Air Jamahiriya was merged into Libyan Arab Airlines in 2001. In 2006, the airline was renamed Libyan Airlines. In 2007, 885,000 passengers were carried, 40 percent of which were travelling on domestic flights. The airline pursues an expansion policy, which is concentrated on European business and tourist customers. Newly introduced destinations like Milan, Ankara, Athens and Madrid have led to a route network similar to the one offered prior to the 1992 trade embargo.

On 31 July 2007, Libyan Airlines became a subsidiary of the state owned Libyan Afriqiyah Aviation Holding Company (LAAHC), together with Afriqiyah Airways. LAAHC is owned by four pre-civil war government bodies: The Libyan National Social Fund (30%), the Libyan National Investment Company (30%), the Libya-Africa Investment Fund (25%), and the Libyan Foreign Investment Company (15%). On 21 September 2010, it was announced that the two airlines, which had already begun extensive code-sharing and set up joint ground handling, maintenance and catering services, were to merge by November of that year, which was later postponed indefinitely, though.

As a consequence of the Libyan civil war and the resulting no-fly zone over the country enforced by NATO in accordance with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, all flight operations with Libyan Airlines were terminated on 17 March 2011.

On March 2012, the airline operations and flights were resumed after one year of being inactive.