PARIS, Feb 15: After an absence of 10 years, France has authorized the resumption of air traffic between Paris and Tripoli with an inaugural ceremony to be held in Paris on Feb 25.

Libya says that Paris will be the first of several European capitals where it will re-establish air service this year, with a view to resuming its economic relations with Europe, and eventually perhaps the rest of the world, part of a process that it recently attempted to encourage when it announced on Jan 14 the devaluation of its national currency and reduction of customs duties.

A high-level Libyan representative is to be sent by Col Moammar Qadhafi for the inauguration, perhaps his son Al-Saadi. Regular weekly service by Libyan Arab Airlines on Thursdays is to begin on Feb 28.

It is possible, say Paris-based aviation sources, that a French nationality airline, perhaps Air France, could eventually decide to fly the route as early as this year.

For the moment Libyan Arab Airlines will fly the route by itself, making use of a 170-passenger French-manufactured Airbus A320-200, which will arrive at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport on Thursdays, with a return flight to Tripoli scheduled the same day.

When the possibility of a regularly-scheduled French flight to Tripoli was evoked three years ago — this after the partial lifting of economic sanctions against Tripoli — a French pilots association let it be known at the time that none of its members would fly the route in reaction to Libya’s alleged role in the explosion Sept 19, 1989, of a UTA DC-10 aircraft over the Tenere desert in Niger, which resulted in the death of 170 people.

Already, an embargo on air travel had been decreed in 1992 against Libya notably by the United States as a result of Libya’s alleged role in the explosion over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec 21, 1988, of a Boeing aircraft flying under the colours of Pan Am.

The embargo was lifted in part in 1999 as a result of the decision by the Libyan authorities to turn over to British authorities two of the alleged masterminds of the attack; the two men were subsequently found guilty during a trial held in the Netherlands two years ago.

It is understood from French governmental sources that Tripoli insisted that the flights resume now as part of a programme to encourage investment in Libya by French and European companies.

If Paris was chosen as the first capital for the resumption of traffic to Europe, it was in large part because of the role played by France in lobbying for lifting of the post-Lockerbie embargo. Indeed, President Chirac is known to have met briefly with Col Qadhafi during the Africa-European Union summit held in April 2000 in Cairo.