Italy's Enav has been awarded by the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority (LCAA) a contract for the construction and set up of the control tower and technical building of the Mitiga airport in Libya.
The new facilities will be equipped to guarantee the capability to provide all air navigation services and ensure the full operation and safety of the airport. The contract is worth 5 million euro and is expected to be completed by the end of 2017.
Mitiga airport, located 8 km from the Libyan capital Tripoli, is currently used to operate the domestic and international flights landing and taking off in the Libyan territory, due to the inaccessibility of the Tripoli airport. With the construction of the new control tower, Libya will benefit from the highest level of efficiency and safety of flight operations.
During the construction of the new facilities, Enav will temporarily supply the airport with an advanced mobile control tower equipped with state-of-the-art technology and workstations, which will allow air traffic controllers and technical staff to perform their activity in the best possible conditions.
In addition, Enav is currently providing training to 60 Libyan air traffic controllers under a contract signed last October. The project covers the training of operational staff who are required to maintain their qualifications in order to operate, after a long period of inactivity caused by the no fly zone in Libyan airspace.
The CEO Roberta Neri (pictured) stated:
"This important achievement is the result of the solid cooperation effort between all institutions involved, with a key role played by the officers and staff of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, whom I wish to thank. It also confirms the excellent performance recorded in Enav’s commercial activities in 2016. Operating in Libya has a strategic importance for Enav, which goes beyond the economic value of the contract signed.
"The southern zone of the Italian airspace borders on the Libyan airspace, which is currently a no-fly zone. Encouraging the development of air transport and flights between Libya and Europe will allow us, in the future, to increase the traffic flows of interest for Italy and increase the revenue from regulated activities, thanks to the reinstatement of the routes that used to cross the Italian airspace before the no-fly zone over Libya was put in place."
(Source: Enav)
