It was a detail that went unmentioned in the government's statement earlier this week regarding the visit by Libyan Government of National Accord President Fayez Al-Sarraj to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, but the resumption of scheduled flights between Malta and Tripoli was on the agenda and the resumption of this service is in the pipeline.

It was the Libyan press which, in the wake of this week's visit, published the news that, during their meeting on Wednesday, the two leaders had agreed to resume direct flights between Libya and Malta before the end of the first quarter of this year.

Contacted by this newspaper, a Tourism Ministry spokesperson confirmed that developments along such lines are "expected in the coming months" adding that: "The resumption of scheduled flights to and from Libya are desired by both the Maltese and Libyan governments.

"The Ministry for Tourism is currently in discussions with the authorities in Libya on the possible introduction of scheduled flights to and from Tripoli's Mitiga airport. Various options are currently being considered and discussed with various operators."

Last month, Air Malta's Chief Commercial Officer Paul Sies had confirmed that talks were underway about the possibility of Air Malta resuming flights between Malta and Libya. Currently, only Medavia is operating flights between Malta and Tripoli, using a turbo-prop aircraft.