Afriqiyah Airways (8U, Tripoli Mitiga) and sister carrier, Libyan Airlines (LN, Tripoli Mitiga), have incurred 'at least' USD200million in damages since fighting broke out at Tripoli International Airport between rival Zintani Islamist militias earlier this month.
"Barclays Bank said in a research note that the fighting at the Tripoli Airport saw USD200 million to USD400 million in damages to aircraft. The aircraft loss will be borne by the niche aviation war market which could also be hit by the loss of the Malaysia Airlines (MH, Kuala Lumpur International) passenger jet shot down over Ukraine last Thursday," the Middle East Insurance Review reported earlier this week.
Raging artillery and rocket attacks have left at least 47 dead with various aircraft including an Afriqiyah A330-200, 5A-ONF (cn 999), having been totally destroyed.
A Libyan Airlines CRJ900, 5A-LAB (cn 15121), and a Libyan Air Cargo (Tripoli International) Il-76, 5A-DNG (cn 0013432961), were also written off. Several other aircraft belonging to Air Libya (7I, Tripoli Mitiga), Buraq Air (UZ, Tripoli International), and Medavia (Malta International) have also been seriously damaged.
In total, thirteen aircraft were either damaged or destroyed during the battles.
"The damage ranges from serious to superficial, and we need time to see how grave the damage is," Abdulhakim Al-Fares, Afriqiyah's chairman, told Reuters.
The airport will, for the foreseeable future, remain closed until both the security situation improves and necessary repairs to the terminal and associated infrastructure effected. Among the most recent carriers to have suspended their Libyan operations is Emirates (EK, Dubai International) which terminated its Tripoli flights earlier this week and no operates non-stop from/to Malta International.
