First Tunisian passenger airplane lands in Libya

The first Tunisian airplane arrived at Tripoli airport yesterday evening to resume direct air flights between the two states after a stop of nearly 8 years due to the sanctions that were imposed in April 1992 on Libya due to the Lockerbie case.

Sanctions against Libya were suspended after it handed over to the United Nations two of its citizens suspected of involvement in the Lockerbie incident in 1988.

Following a two-day working visit to Libya last week by President Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, Tripoli and Tunis agreed on "immediate" resumption of air traffic to "facilitate the movement of people and goods."

The Tunisian and Libyan sides signed three agreements that organize civil aviation issues between the two states among which is a commercial agreement aiming at expanding cooperation in the air transportation fields.

The agreement between the two state airline companies specify two weekly trips between Tripoli and Tunis for each company as the Libyan first trip to Tunis starts next Tuesday.