Türkiye's national flag carrier on Tuesday resumed its flights from Istanbul to Libya’s northeastern city of Benghazi after 10 years, a top official said.
Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said Turkish Airlines (THY) will be flying three times a week to Benghazi.
A Turkish Airlines plane departed from Istanbul Airport early on Tuesday for a two-and-a-half-hour flight before landing at Benina International Airport in Benghazi.
The carrier already operates five flights a week to Libya's capital Tripoli.
"In the upcoming period, we will increase both the number of frequencies and the number of destinations we fly to," THY CEO Bilal Ekşi said on arrival in Benghazi.
Turkish Airlines started flights to Benghazi in May 2009 and operated regularly until their suspension in January 2015 over worsening security in the North African country.
Most other international airlines had suspended flights in and out of Libya since the civil war in 2014 that spawned two rival administrations in east and west following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled dictator Moammar Gadhaf in 2011.
Some airlines resumed flights to Libya after security was restored when major fighting paused with a cease-fire in 2020. But efforts to end the political crisis have failed, with factions occasionally staging armed clashes and competing for control over economic resources.
On Sunday, Italy's ITA Airways resumed direct flights to Tripoli, the first airline from a major west European nation to do so after a 10-year hiatus.
Ekşi stated that Turkish Airlines is the airline that operates flights to most countries and international destinations in the world. He said it serves 131 countries and 352 destinations across six continents.
Ekşi also noted that the company possesses one of the world's youngest fleets, with 492 aircraft.
Uraloğlu said the ministry is utilizing Türkiye’s advantageous geographical location with investments in the country’s aviation field.
"We transformed Türkiye into one of the world’s largest flight networks, as its location allows access to 67 countries with a combined gross domestic product of $51.2 trillion within a four-hour-flight radius,” Uraloğlu told Anadolu Agency (AA).
The minister said 32 new airports were built in Türkiye in the last 22 years, enabling 58 domestic and 349 international destinations to be reached by air.
Uraloğlu highlighted that flights to Santiago and Chile also resumed in December 2024, while earlier in the same month, Turkish Airlines started flights on the Istanbul-Kuala Lumpur-Sydney route.
