Turkish Airlines resumes flights from Istanbul to Libya's Benghazi after 10 years

Flights from Istanbul to Libya’s northeastern city of Benghazi resumed on Tuesday after 10 years, according to the Turkish transport and infrastructure minister.

Abdulkadir Uraloglu told Anadolu that Türkiye’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines will be flying three times a week to Benghazi.

Uraloglu said Turkish Airlines started flights to Benghazi in May 2009 and operated regularly until suspension in January 2015.

He said the ministry is utilizing Türkiye’s advantageous geographical location with investments in the country’s aviation field.

“We transformed Türkiye into one of the world’s largest flight networks, as its location allows access to 67 countries with a combined gross domestic product of $51.2 trillion within a four-hour-flight radius,” he said.

The minister said 32 new airports were built in Türkiye in the last 22 years, enabling 58 domestic and 349 international destinations to be reached by air.

Uraloglu highlighted that flights to Santiago and Chile also resumed in December 2024, while earlier in the same month, Turkish Airlines started flights on the Istanbul-Kuala Lumpur-Sydney route, increasing the total number of international destinations to 349.