EgyptAir, the country's national carrier, would resume direct commercial flights from Cairo to the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday afternoon after 52 days of suspension due to Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon, an official with the airlines said.

The Cairo-Beirut airline would finally re-operate with an EgyptAir flight taking off for the Lebanese capital at 6:15 p.m. local time (GMT 1515), he said.

The official MENA news agency quoted EgyptAir's vice president Safwat Mosalm as saying that five flights would leave for Lebanon in the first week.

After the first week, there would be four flights every week till the end of September, Mosalm said, adding that one EgyptAir plane would head for Lebanon every day as of Oct. 1, which was just about average.

Mosalm said that the 52-day suspension made the company suffer a loss of some 11 million Egyptian pounds (US$1.9 million), noting EgyptAir used to organize 11 flights per week to Lebanon in addition to one weekly Alexandria-Beirut flight before the war.

The resumption of EgyptAir's flight came one day after Israel lifted an two-month-old air blockade of Lebanon at 6:00 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Thursday.

Israel imposed an air and sea blockade on Lebanon at the beginning of its 34-day-long conflict with Hezbollah on July 12. The blockade is being maintained despite UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which was passed on Aug. 11 and called on Israel to lift its blockage on Lebanon.

(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2006)