The decision to increase the flight prices of Afriqiyah Airlines will stay upheld unless foreign exchange fees imposed by the Presidency Council on the sales since September are decreased, Afriqiyah Airlines spoeksperson Imran Zabadi told 218news Sunday.
The decision; however, has not been applied thus far, although the Civil Aviation Authority adopted it in April.
In September, Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) imposed a 183 percent fee on commercial and private foreign currency transactions to narrow the gap between the official and black market rates, bringing the effective official rate for such transactions to LYD 3.9 per one dollar.
A few days later, Minister of Economy Ali al-Essawi discussed with Libyan airliners the repercussions of the economic reforms on their companies, but no official decisions resulted from the meeting.
The Libyan Airlines said on its Facebook page that its talks with the government had failed to reach an exemption for the company from buying dollars for the new tax-added prices.
Accordingly, Both the Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways decided in November to increase their flight ticket prices threefold starting from December.
