Afriqiyah Airways

Establishment and growth: 2001-2011

Afriqiyah Airways was established in April 2001 and commenced scheduled services on 1 December 2001. The name Afriqiyah comes from the Arabic word for African. It is wholly owned by the Libyan government and has 287 employees (at March 2007). The airline started with Boeing 737-400 aircraft, but in 2003, an all-Airbus fleet was introduced. The Italian airline Blue Panorama jointly set up the airline with the Libyan government. Afriqiyah Airways is one of the few airlines which does not serve alcoholic beverages on its flights.

The airline generated US$120 million in revenue in 2006.

Afriqiyah Airways signed a memorandum of understanding for the purchase of six Airbus A320s and three Airbus A319s plus an option on five, as well as for three Airbus A330-200s, with an option for three more.

The new A320s and A319s entered service on Afriqiyah's growing international network, covering routes from its base at Tripoli to seventeen destinations in North, West, and Central Africa and the Middle East, as well as to European destinations such as Paris, Brussels, London, Rome, and Amsterdam. Afriqiyah's A319s carry 124 passengers in a two-class configuration, while the A320 seats 144 in two class configurations (J16/Y128). The A330s serve the long-distance operations on routes to Southern Africa, Asia and Europe, and have a two-class configuration with 230 seats (J30/Y200). As of 2015 the airline no longer flies to some of these destinations as the airline is banned from flying in the EU.

On 20 August 2009, an Air Afriqiyah aircraft (registration 5A-IAY) – the private aircraft of Colonel Gaddafi – flew to Glasgow Airport to collect Abelbasset al-Megrahi (who had been convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and released on compassionate grounds by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice in the Scottish Government). He was flown directly from Glasgow to Tripoli.

Three A330s that were delivered in 2009 were used to inaugurate new routes to Dhaka, Johannesburg and Kinshasa. In the winter 2010, two new routes were added to the airline's network - Beijing and Nouakchott. However, Beijing and Kinshasa never became a reality.

Suspended operations: 2011

As a consequence of the First 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 by Afriqiyah Airways were terminated on 17 March 2011.

Point 17 of the United Nations resolution specifically banned flights into members of the United Nations by aircraft registered in Libya (5A). This was to have been rescinded when Afriqiyah Airways was officially 'unsanctioned' on 22 September 2011, when Libyan-registered aircraft should have been again permitted to enter EU airspace. This did not happen and up to 5 March 2013 however no such easing had been announced and Libyan-registered aircraft are still banned from Europe, even overflying through the airspace. The Tripoli - Istanbul route has to route further east, via over Alexandria, which adds an hour each way to the sector time. Afriqiyah Airways announced that they expected to resume flights between Tripoli and London by the end of the year, subject to the issuance of air transport and security permits, using A320 equipment. However, flights did not resume until 3 July 2012. In order to get round the EU ban, Afriqiyah wet-leased an A320 (ER-AXP) from Air Moldova that complied with the EU requirements.

Current fleet

As of July 2026, Afriqiyah Airways operates the following aircraft:

Former fleet

As of August 2025, Afriqiyah Airways operated 1 Airbus A319, 5 Airbus A320 and 2 Airbus A330-300.

2 Airbus A300-600

4 Boeing 737-400 (leased from Blue Panorama Airlines and Lauda Air)

The Libyan government had announced its intention to merge the airline and Libyan Airlines in 2008, forming a single umbrella entity, the LAAHC ( Libyan African Aviation Holding Company), targeting a 2010 merger of operations. Both airlines have been consolidated as wholly-owned subsidiaries of LAAHC this parent company, with consolidations of ground handling, catering, maintenance and procurement, between 2007 and 2010. However, the initial 2010 deadline to fully merge both airlines into one was missed - as with several subsequent deadlines - mostly due to instability and civil war in the region, including the extensive targeting of aviation assets, including in the Battle of Tripoli Airport in 2014. Late in 2014; all Libyan airlines were once again banned from EU airspace causing further complications. From 2014, the merger had effectively ground to an halt. By 2025, there had been heavy fleet depletion between both airlines; in response the Libyan Ministry of Transport had moved away from merging legacy frameworks, instead to establish a new unified national brand called Libyan United Airlines. To facilitate this, they entered a strategic partnership with Boeing in May 2026 to conduct feasibility studies, manage infrastructure redevelopment, and structure fleet modernization for the unified sector. As of September 2026, no firm dates have been released for the eventual merger of the two airlines.

Accidents and incidents

On 12 May 2010, at 04:10 UTC (06:10 Tripoli time) an Airbus A330-202, flying from Johannesburg in South Africa to Tripoli as Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 crashed on approach to Tripoli International Airport. 11 crew members and 92 passengers were killed. The sole survivor was a nine-year-old Dutch boy.

On 25 August 2011, two Afriqiyah jets were caught in the middle of a crossfire battle at Tripoli Airport. The former, an Airbus A300B4 registered 5A-IAY, was totalled and written off when a grenade hit the aircraft, while an Airbus A320, 5A-ONK, bore severe damage when an RPG hit the wing root, possibly puncturing the centre wing tank in the process.

On 20 July 2014, two Airbus A330 aircraft with registrations 5A-ONF and 5A-ONP were hit by rockets fired by one of the rival militias (Misratah and Zintan) fighting for control of the facility at Tripoli International Airport. 5A-ONF exploded, burned to the ground and was written off; 5A-ONP suffered minor to moderate damage, and was stored in Hamburg before being broken up in November 2025.