A new airline hoping to offer scheduled, charter and freight services from Tirpoli’s Mitiga airport is awaiting clearance to operate, in the meantime basing two leased aircraft in Malta.

The aircraft – Airbus A319s – were leased from Dubai Aerospace Enterprise and arrived in Malta in the past weeks.

One of the plane’s registration prefix – 5A – indicates that it is registered in Libya, while the other has a European registration and would eventually have to be re-registered in Libya. There is currently an EU ban on aircraft registered in Libya, which means that they cannot fly in EU airspace.

Sources said that they would need a special permit from the Civil Aviation Department if they want to take off from Malta with a Libyan registration.

Work started on setting up the airline some years ago; in fact, its Facebook page was opened in 2012. Libyan Wings signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus for seven aircraft in November 2013, with ambitious plans to operate in the North African and Middle East region, as well as some European destinations.

The chief executive officer is Edgardo Badiali, who has worked with various airlines as CEO since 2005. It is not clear from their announcements so far whether Malta will feature in their plans as a base or as a destination.

However, the CEO said that the leased Airbus would remain in Malta “while final clearances and approvals are obtained to commence operations” out of Mitiga, which is Tripoli’s second airport.

Mitiga has handled some flights since the capital’s main airport was closed in July 2014. However, it was targeted by airstrikes in the past few months.