Dubai: Afriqiyah Airways, the state-owned Libyan carrier based in Tripoli, is seeing a “slight” revenue increase as its operations begin to stabilise amid a civil war that is splitting the country.
The North African airline has shifted over to Mitiga International Airport from nearby Tripoli International, which was closed in July when it was damaged in the fighting.
Abdulhakim Fares, Afriqiyah Airways chairman, told Gulf News on Wednesday he is satisfied with current passenger numbers and revenue is improving in the second half. The airline continues to fly to Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and Sudan, however, with only half its fleet.
Fifty per cent of the airline’s fleet were damaged in the fighting at Tripoli International and temporarily left at the airport. Fares said the airline has finalised insurance claims to repair the aircraft, which he said would start to return to service early 2015, with the entire fleet in operations by the end of that year.
Fares spoke on the sidelines of the Arab Air Carriers Organisation Annual General Meeting held in Dubai this week.
The airline has seen no respite in fuel costs, despite a global collapse in oil prices since June. Fares said prices in Libya remain unchanged.
Faced with a hefty insurance bill, Afriqiyah Airways will not turn a profit in 2014, Fares said, and was non-committal on next year’s performance.
The airline has also not taken delivery of two new Airbus A330’. Fares said the airline will seek a bank loan to make the final payment when it is ready to receive the aircraft. He did not state how much it will need to finance.
