The Libyan Wings, with Bernice behind them, break the barrier of (incapacity).
Location: Istanbul International Airport
Time: A hot summer evening
Event: Libyan citizens making their way through the bustling crowd in one of the world's busiest airports. They hear the airport's public announcement system calling for the imminent departure of their flights back home—one to Tripoli and another to Benghazi. Sleek, clean planes bearing the logos of private companies are taking off from our not fully equipped airports on time, arriving at their destinations on time, and returning to the homeland on time.
In the same time and place, other Libyan citizens are sprawled on the airport floor. Some of them, or let's say the luckiest of them, have found chairs to rest their weary bodies after another traveler vacated it upon the departure of their flight. These people do not know when their flight will take off, as the time on their tickets has passed hours ago. The plane meant to take them home has not even left Libya yet. One of them makes a call and is told that their plane is stuck at Kufra Airport due to a brake malfunction. Engineers and spare parts are being flown to Kufra on another plane to repair it so that it can return to Tripoli, pick up other stranded passengers at Mitiga Airport, and then finally come for them in Istanbul.
Our frustrated friend curses his bad luck that left him in the hands of a miserable airline that hasn't changed in decades. The same poor treatment from ticket purchase to boarding, the same awful services from check-in to the stale meal, the same delays that can extend from hours to a day or more, sometimes leading to cancellations. He wonders why his fellow Libyans, who we talked about at the beginning of this article, traveled on time with precision. Why does he have to spend hours at the airport while passengers on private airline flights arrive later, go through their procedures easily, and depart on time with decent services and hot meals, while he lies on the floor of airports in Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia?
This is the reality for many Libyans who, due to their bad luck or perhaps limited financial means, choose a state-owned airline for their travel. They face poor treatment and lousy services, while flight schedules depend on luck.
On the other hand, private airlines have proven their reliability and outpaced state-owned companies by far. Examples like Libyan Wings and Berniq have been successfully providing services for years, even developing their services to have their own terminals—specifically Berniq—demonstrating their superiority over state-owned companies that run entire airports yet fail to provide a decent meal for travelers.
Less than ten years ago, when Libyan Wings was preparing to launch its first flights, many bet on its failure, doubting its ability to continue amid deteriorating security conditions or predicting it would fail the efficiency test due to the lack of necessary infrastructure for success in this field. However, after all these years, this private company continues to operate efficiently, setting an example in punctuality and quality of services.
Not far behind is Berniq, another private company that competes with state-owned airlines and outshines them in every aspect. Despite its few years of operation, it surpasses all the experience that officials of state-owned companies boast about, who have no real credentials in this field except for reminiscing about past glories and recounting stories—whether true or not—from the 1960s when travelers used to set their watches by the arrival times of our planes.
In recent years, several new airlines have entered the competitive field, and others have risen from the ashes to compete with emerging companies. I firmly believe that most of these companies will provide better services than the state-owned ones and will continue to do so. These companies take the successful models of Berniq and Libyan Wings as their inspiration and competition goals.
In this constantly evolving and dynamic market, state-owned companies still crawl slowly without direction, burdened by a bloated workforce, outdated operating systems, traditional bureaucracy, and long-standing traditions of theft and corruption. Meanwhile, private companies spread their wings, drawing inspiration from global companies' governance frameworks, transparency, and keeping up with the latest industry updates to soar in the world of success. They set a living example for all Libyans in every field that success is possible when its causes are present, and that security conditions, lack of resources, and infrastructure will not be obstacles if the intention is sincere.