Afriqiyah Airways (8U, Tripoli Mitiga) and Libyan Airlines (LN, Tripoli Mitiga) have postponed merger plans against the backdrop of increasing violence and sociopolitical unrest in the North African country. Speaking to Arabian Aerospace, Afriqiyah chairman Abdulhakim Fares said original plans to have concluded the merger by year-end have now been postponed indefinitely.

"We are not working on this [merger] right now," he said. "We are working together as friends, not competing. They [Afriqiyah and Libyan] may stay separate for some time."

Both Afriqiyah and Libyan are subsidiaries of the Libyan African Aviation Holding Company (LAAHC), which itself is owned by the Libyan National Social Fund, the Libyan National Investment Company, the Libya-Africa Investment Fund and the Libyan Foreign Investment Company.

The airlines have been in negotiations over a merger for several years but the plan has been repeatedly delayed, most notably by the overthrow of Libya's Muammur Gaddhafi in 2011. Gaddhafi and his regime founded Afriqiyah as a separate entity to serve the African continent though since his downfall, the airline has moved to reorientate itself as an international airline operating in the same market as Libyan, which had originally focussed on regional and domestic flights.

On the issue of the Libyan carriers' return to European skies, Fares blamed the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority (LyCAA) for the little progress made so far in lifting the moratorium. Afriqiyah has however just resumed operations to the European Union with its own aircraft following the transfer of three of its A320-200s to the air operator certificate of Irish ACMI specialist Air Contractors (Dublin International). It currently serves Düsseldorf, London Gatwick, Paris CDG and Rome Fiumicino in the EU.