Updated EU-ban listBy Simon Hradecky, created Tuesday, Jul 14th 2009 16:50Z, last updated Tuesday, Jul 14th 2009 20:10Z
The European Union Commission have released their updated list of airlines banned in Europe.
Most notable are:
TAAG Angola are now allowed to conduct up to 10 flights per week to Lisbon (Portugal) with their Boeing 777-200 (D2-TED,D2-TEE,D2-TEF) aircraft.
Four Indonesian carriers including Garuda and Mandala have been taken off the list.
Yemenia has not been added to the list. Yemenia had been seriously criticised by French government officials in the aftermath of the crash of their A310 at the Comores, see Crash: Yemenia A313 near Moroni on Jun 30th 2009, impacted ocean.
The European Commission commented, that the list has proven to be a strong incentive to remove safety deficits. The concept of the list becomes more a preventive than a punitive instrument to ensure flight safety.
The European Commission acknowledges efforts and improvements in the safety audit by Indonesia's, Gabon's, Ukraine's and Angola's Civil Aviation Authorities with the updated list, that allows to remove several airlines from the list or permit operations under restrictions.
Deficits in the safety auditing by Zambia and Kazakhstan led to a ban for all carriers of these countries with the exception of Air Astana, whose operations into the European Union are frozen under strict restrictions.