There has been a flurry of activity in Libya of late. The people with their hands on the AFTN printer for Libya have been putting out all kinds of information, advertising availability of aerodromes and the Tripoli FIR. All are welcome!
Don’t be too hasty.
Libya is still a desperately unstable country. A Notam published today (A0070/17) indicates that HLLM/Mitiga is open and available “H24 for International Flights and Diversions”.
We’d love you to come visit, they say. What the Notam doesn’t mention is that two weeks ago, 5 people were killed and 32 injured during fighting at the airport.
As a matter of update on the Libyan ATM situation, we can inform operators that there are regular outages in the provision of ATC services especially at the main airports due to security or technical failure issues.
The main ACC in Tripoli is also subject to severe limitations with no radar service and limited provision of CNS/ATM services in most of the HLLL FIR airspace.
Overflight through HLLL FIR is only approved by the Libyan authorities on one southbound route from RASNO-LOSUL but even this is subject to severe limitations and a degree of confusion as to who is actually authorizing flights to transit the airspace.
There are several NOTAMs issued by adjacent States prohibiting overflights on certain entry/exit points creating further complications.
Here’s a simple guide for you from FSB:
- Don’t overfly Libya or enter the Tripoli FIR, and don’t land in Libyan airports.
- Refer to 1.
Libya remains categorised as a Level One country (Do Not Fly) at safeairspace.net
More on the topic:
- More: Libya Airspace Risk: An Idiot’s Guide
- More: Mass evacuation of aircraft – Libya
- More: Libya Airspace Update Aug 2023
- More: Libya Airspace Update March 2022
- More: SafeAirspace: 2021 Update
More reading:
- Latest: Dodging Danger: The Three Routes Through the Middle East
- Latest: US Pre-Clearance: How does it work?
- Latest: 2025 North Atlantic Plotting & Planning Chart
- Safe Airspace: Risk Database
- Weekly Ops Bulletin: Subscribe
- Membership plans: Why join OPSGROUP?