European Commission removes some airlines from black list

The European Commission adopted the sixth update of the list of airlines banned in the European Union. With this update the Commission is lifting the ban imposed upon Blue Wing Airlines from Surinam together with the operating restrictions imposed on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

Blue Wing Airlines and PIA have successfully completed the implementation of a corrective action plan following their inclusion in the list.

Following evidence of improvements in safety standards, the Commission said it will monitor closely and verify various Russian air carriers on which the Russian authorities have imposed operating restrictions. Furthermore, this update acknowledges the efforts made by the civil aviation authorities of Indonesia, Iran, Ukraine and Angola to enhance the exercise of their oversight responsibilities with a view to improving safety and cooperate closely to that end with the Commission.

By the same token, this update pays particular attention to the individual carriers TAAG Angola Airlines, Mahan Air and Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines, which have shown clear progress towards the measures required to address the root causes of their safety deficiencies. However, given that in these cases there are still significant safety deficiencies which have yet to be addressed, the Commission considered with the unanimous support of the Air Safety Committee that a decision to withdraw these airlines from the Community list would, at this stage, be premature.

Hence, the Community’s list contains eight individual carriers whose operations are fully banned in the European Union, together with all carriers from Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (with the exception of one). Three airlines are subject to operating restrictions on specific aircraft.

For more information on the black list:

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air_portal/safety/black_list_en.htm