Afriqiyah Airways (8U, Tripoli Mitiga) has confirmed the suspension of its services to Europe, just one week after it announced that it was resuming them. According to a statement issued by the carrier, AeroVista, the UAE-based ACMI specialist which had wet-leased two A320-200s - 4L-AJD (cn 879) and 4L-AJF (cn 1422) - to the Libyans for use on flights to Europe, has decided to quit the country for security reasons.

AeroVista's concerns emanate from an Islamist attack on the luxury Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli in late-January which killed 12 people including the Kyrgyz crew of an S Group International (Bishkek) A320-200 that was in service for Buraq Air (UZ, Tripoli Mitiga). Buraq has yet to resume operations despite stating it would do so by the end of the first week of February.

Fellow carrier Air Libya (7I, Tripoli Mitiga) also had a contract with AeroVista in which a B737-300 was used for scheduled flights throughout the region while a B737-500 was based out of Tobruk for use on charter flights. The status of that contract is currently unknown.

Both Afriqiyah and Air Libya contracts were operated by AeroVista's Vista Georgia (Tbilisi) subsidiary.