Air Malta will be restarting direct flights to Benghazi in Libya next week with a twice-weekly operation every Tuesday and Thursday.

It will be the only international airline operating from that city.

Benghazi, the second largest city in Libya, is one of Libya's major economic centres and is primarily an administrative and commercial centre.

Brock Friesen, Air Malta's chief commercial officer said: "Flight timings have been selected so that customers originating from Benghazi will have the opportunity to connect through Malta with various Air Malta flights to major international airports and gateways including Athens, London Heathrow, Brussels, Rome and Munich. We thus anticipate that this route will generate business traffic with onward connections through Malta.

"We are also expecting that this new destination will go down well with the Maltese business community and will further increase traffic between both countries."

The Tuesday flight will depart at 10.45 a.m. arriving at 12.05 p.m. while the Thursday flight will fly out at 4.35 p.m. landing in Benghazi at 5.55 p.m. The return flight on Tuesday departs Benghazi at 1.05 p.m. arriving in Malta at 2.25 p.m. while the Thursday flight leaves at 6.55 p.m. arriving at 8.15 p.m.

More information can be obtained by calling 2166 2211, Air Malta sales offices, travel agents or by visiting Air Malta's website www.airmalta.com.

In another announcement, Air Malta yesterday said that following the opening of the new Catania airport, the airline's new office is located on the terminal's first floor.

The office will be open two hours prior to Air Malta's flight departure time. Clients wishing to contact this office are kindly asked to do so at: Air Malta plc, 1st Floor, Check-in Hall, Catania Airport, Catania, tel: 0039 095 345 311, fax: 0039 095 281 03, e-mail: aeroportocatania@airmalta-sicilia.it.