Tunisia Live (Tunis)
Sana Ajmi
27 November 2011
According to the Tunisian National TV, Tunisair, Tunisia’s national airline company, decided today, November 27th, 2011, to temporarily suspend its flights to Tripoli, Libya’s capital. However, all flights to the Benghazi airport will continue.
The suspension of flights comes as a reaction to the incident that happened yesterday in Miitigua, Tripoli airport, where Ibn Khaldoun Airbus 320, which contained 54 passengers, was prevented from taking off by a group of 300 armed people.
Soulafa Mkadem, Tunisair’s Director of Foreign Relations, told Tunisia Live that security issues are the main reason for the suspension. “We are afraid that yesterday’s incident may occur again but with worse consequences… The security situation in Tripoli is still not stable… We will resume our flights as soon as the situation becomes safer.”
On another note, Abed Allah El Mahdi, a Libyan pilot and a member of the steering committee of Tripoli Airport said: “I sincerely apologize on behalf of the Libyan people for the incident that occurred yesterday, we are ready to assume the responsibility if anything happens to the flights of Tunisair…we need the flights to resume because there are a lot of wounded Libyans in need of cure… It was just an attempt by the rebels to catch the attention of the National Transitional Council.”
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