By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli 13 June 2016:
Libyan Airlines has become bogged down in a power stuggle over who is its chairman and managing director.
Khaled Tinaz, sacked two years ago by the company, is accused by Ahmed Ali Al-Ghadiri, appointed to replace him as chairman, of illegally appointing a new managing director, Miloud Bakar, who then, Ghadiri claims, stormed and seized the carrier’s main offices in Tripoli last Wednesday and was now occupying it.
In a letter issued yesterday, Ghadiri complained that Tinaz had been legally dismissed and himself appointed by the company’s parent body, the Libyan Afriqiyah Aviation Holding Company.
However, Tinaz, claims that his sacking was illegal, and obtained an order to that effect from a court in Beida.
He has the support of the air transport workers’ union and, it is claimed, of Presidency Council member Mohamed Al-Amari.
In a letter dated 2 June to the chairman of Libyan Afriqiyah Aviation Holding Company, union head Faraj Al-Deeb said he backed Bakkar as the new managing director.
Despite the alleged support of Al-Amari, who is like Tinaz is from the east, the Presidency Council as a whole has made no comment on the matter. However, it is reported that when Bakar took over the company’s headquarters he allegedly had the support of more than one militia currently working with the Presidency.
Tinaz, who flew into Tripoli two days ago from the east where he has been based since his dismissal, is also said to be close to Hamza Al-Hassi, brother of Omar Al-Hassi, the former prime minister of GNC regime. It was Omar Al-Hassi who appointed Tinaz as Libyan Airlines’ chairman.
The carrier has been effectively splite into two parrallel organisations since the Thinni government was forced to flee Tripoli two years. To complicate matters, the eastern and western managements, in a bid to bring the company together again, agreed last week to appoint a fourth person to lead it. Fadil Al-Kaseh is supposed to be a temporary general manager, deputising for Ghadiri who is due to retire in September but who has been on sabbatical in recent weeks.
According to a source in Libyan Airlines, the support from Al-Amari has been has been instrumental in enabling Tinaz to take control in Tripoli again. However, despite having moved east after the Thinni government fled the capital and been instrumetnal in setting up the carrier’s parallel management there, Tinaz now appears to be unacceptable to the powers there. Abdullah Al-Thini has allegedly referred him for investigation over a report submitted by the Libyan National Army which is said to accuse him of corruption and of flying militants in and out of Libya.
