what does a no fly zone means?

You received your answer to what a no fly zone is but this action is more than just a no fly zone. The coalition forces are also enforcing an attack on Libya's military when they are on the move or seem to be gathering for an attack.

I see you have pretty well gotten your answer. It is always good to be able to ask around for explanations of things.

I have seen this on the news a lot lately and I too wondered exactly what it really meant, I seem to learn a lot form my Mylot friends..thank you..

Basically it means that the area is deemed as unsafe (or hostile) and therefore planes or other air transport vehicles, should avoid it and therefore the onboard computers would probably find an alternative flight path (if it's in the flight path at all). It's odd that most these zones are in the middle east or Arabia... seems that's where most conflict takes place these days... but most flight paths from the East to the West go via Russia anyways...

It means planes can't fly over a certain area.

It means that the country enforcing the zone does not allow any other aircraft to fly over the zone without their permission, and they destroy any facilities on the ground that could fire upon aircraft.