A jet from Khalifa Haftar's east Libyan military forces intercepted a civilian plane on Sunday as part of its push to control the oil-rich south of the riven nation, the faction said. Libya has been in turmoil since the NATO-backed toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with parallel administrations and armed groups carving the nation into swathes of control. Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) began an offensive in the south last month to fight militants and take control of oil installations, and this week banned flights without its permission. The LNA said it scrambled a jet after a plane took off from the El Feel oilfield without permission, and forced it to land near Sabha. It was allowed to continue to Tripoli, seat of the internationally-recognised government, after inspection. The Tripoli government protested against the interception, saying the Libyan Airlines plane was carrying oil workers.<br/>
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Six months after dropping flights from Heathrow to Dubai, Virgin Atlantic is launching services to a very different Middle East destination: Tel Aviv. Sir Richard Branson’s airline will start serving the route on 25 September 2019. At just 2,233 miles, it will be easily Virgin Atlantic’s shortest link to and from the UK. The eastbound flight to Tel Aviv is scheduled for just over five hours, and the inbound to Heathrow for just under six. Despite the short flight time, the new route will tie up an aircraft for a long stretch; with a night stop for the plane in Israel, the initial schedule involves nearly 22 hours between departure and arrival at Heathrow. Virgin’s Tel Aviv service adds to the intense competition between London and Israel’s main aviation hub. It is one of relatively few routes on which “full-service” airlines, such as British Airways, and now Virgin Atlantic, offer long-haul standards against short-haul budget carriers.<br/>
Philippine Airlines will not seek out any more strategic investors to take up stakes in the carrier after it sealed a deal for All Nippon Airways parent company ANA Holdings to take a 9.5% stake. PAL president and COO Jaime Bautista said that it will now look into securing more financial backing. "We can get some other financial investors by buying shares on the stock market. But as far as strategic investor is concerned, we are happy that ANA is now part of our corporate structure," he said at the formal signing ceremony Friday. ANA Holdings announced its $95m deal to take the minority stake PAL's parent company, PAL Holdings, on 29 January. The stake is smaller than the 40% that PAL has previously talked of offering to a strategic investor. Bautista added that PAL is keen to "enhance and improve" its codeshare and frequent flyer partnerships with ANA, and explore opportunities in the catering and ground handling businesses. The partnership could also allow PAL to start flights from secondary cities in the Philippines like Bohol, and Davao to Tokyo Narita. Bautista stressed that PAL will not rely on sending passengers to North America via ANA's Tokyo hub, and instead boost nonstop frequencies to its destinations in Canada and the United States.<br/>
Ryanair's CE Michael O'Leary could earn almost E100m if he doubles either the profitability or share price of the carrier within five years, under a new share option scheme announced on Friday. O'Leary said Monday he would stay for another five years at Europe's largest low-cost airline. Under the new options scheme he will be granted the option of buying 10m shares at the current share price of E11.12 if he either increases annual profit to E2b from a forecast of 1-1.1b in the current financial year, or if the share price rises to E21, the airline said. "The terms of the options will require him to double Ryanair's profitability to E2b per annum and/or increase the share price to 21 euros per share over the next five years to qualify for all of these options," Ryanair said. If the share price hits E21, O'Leary would earn a profit of E9.88 on each of the 10m share options. The airline said it has also offered each of its 11 non-executive directors options on over 50,000 shares each on the same terms.<br/>