Air Malta touched down in Benghazi this morning in an inaugural flight which will see the airline resume a twice-weekly service after an absence of four years.

The airline's CEO, Peter Davies, was on the flight and officially launched the service at a press conference in Benina Airport.

"We are enthusiastic to be back in Benghazi after an absence of four years," Mr Davies said.

The service to Libya's second city, comes after the airline started flying to the capital Tripoli in November, initially three times a week, before switching to a daily flight earlier this month.

In Benghazi the airline hopes to emulate the success it has seen on the Tripoli route, where it carried just shy of 22,000 passengers in six months.

This summer the airline expects to carry some 8,000 passengers on the Benghazi route on top of another 30,000 passengers being forecast on the Tripoli flight for the summer.

Mr Davies stressed that the Malta connection offers Libyans a gateway to Europe, and the flights were timed to facilitate such connections.The flight leaves Malta at 4:40a.m. rrives at 6.05a.m. leaves Benghazi at 7:05 and touches down in Malta at 8.25a.m.

Benghazi airport Director Jamal Agili said the authorities had been looking forward to this direct link to Malta from the East but also pointed out that they would like to see speedier processing of visas.The Maltese consulate in Benghazi is flooded with requests and is issuing some 100 visas a week. The demand is largely down to Malta having practically the only European representation issuing Schengen visas.

Speaking to The Times, Mr Davies said Air Malta at this time of restructuring would be looking at North Africa as a destination for strategic expansion but stressed that the priority for now was to consolidate the position enjoyed by the airline before the conflict before it can think of venturing further.