Etihad cancels Tripoli flights after airport siege

Etihad Airways postponed flights between Tripoli and Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday after armed gunmen seized the Libyan capital’s international airport on Monday.

“Due to the closure of Tripoli airport, Etihad Airways has delayed its flights between Abu Dhabi and Tripoli from Tuesday 5 June to Wednesday 6 June,” a spokesperson for the carrier said in an emailed comment to Arabian Business on Wednesday June 7.

“We will continue to monitor the situation in Tripoli. The safety of passengers and airline staff is of paramount importance to Etihad Airways.”

Etihad launched its three-times-a-week route to the Libyan capital in January 2012. The service is the only direct commercial route between the UAE and Tripoli.

The flight postponements came after clashes broke out between rival Libyan militias at Tripoli's international airport on Monday after gunmen drove armed pickup trucks onto the tarmac and surrounded planes, forcing the airport to cancel flights.

In a fresh challenge to the interim government's weak authority, members of the al-Awfea Brigade occupied the airport for several hours demanding the release of their leader whom they said was being held by Tripoli's security forces.

Leaders of militias which became part of the government's official security forces after the war which ousted Muammar Gaddafi said they had intervened to stop the fighting, in which they said 10 people were injured, without government leadership.

Government spokespeople were not available for comment much of the day but later said the situation had been resolved.

"The airport will resume operation within 24 hours. I heard there were some injured," government spokesman Nasser al-Manee told a late night press conference, without giving a number of those wounded in the clashes.

* With agencies