Afriqiyah Airways: What to Know Before Flying the Libyan Airline

A slow rebirth after 2011

Before the civil war, Afriqiyah aimed to become a pan-African hub, with orders for several Airbus A350s, never delivered. The conflict destroyed or immobilized much of the fleet on the ground in Tripoli, forcing the carrier to rebuild almost from scratch in the following years, with progressive growth that is still far from the numbers of the mid-2000s.

The fleet today

The current fleet is made up mainly of Airbus A320s and A330s, for about twenty aircraft in total, counting the older aircraft being phased out. It is a small fleet by the standards of a carrier that calls itself intercontinental, and this limits the number of routes the airline can cover at the same time.

Where it really flies

The network is centered on Tripoli as its hub, with links to North African and Middle Eastern destinations (Cairo, Alexandria, Amman) and a few routes to sub-Saharan Africa such as N'Djamena. European links, when active, often go through Milan Malpensa or Lyon.

The EU operating ban issue

Afriqiyah still appears on the European Union air safety blacklist, in force for Libyan carriers since December 2014 because of shortcomings in the oversight of the national aviation authority, not because of a negative assessment specific to the individual airline. For this reason, flights to Europe are often operated through wet lease, that is, with the aircraft and crew of a third European carrier. Talks between Brussels and Tripoli during 2025 discussed a work plan to lift the ban, but no date has been confirmed.

Afriqiyah Airways remains a sensible choice mainly for those who need to reach Libya from North African or Middle Eastern destinations where alternatives are few. It is instead one to avoid if you are planning a direct flight from Europe without first checking how the route is operated: being subject to the EU ban, the same route can change aircraft and operating airline from one season to the next. Before booking, always check in the booking details whether the flight is flagged as operated under wet lease by a third-party carrier.