The European Commission updated the EU Air Safety List on November 30, 2017. With the latest update one airline, Avior Airlines (Venezuela), is added to the list, while two others – Mustique Airways (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) and Urga (Ukraine) – are removed following safety improvements.
“Our objective is to offer the highest level of safety in European skies,” said Violeta Bulc, the Commissioner for Transport. “The EU’s Air Safety List remains one of our most effective tools to achieve this. Today we are showing that with our help, airlines can be quickly removed from the list when they tackle their safety issues. Work pays off and I hope that the example of Mustique Airways and Urga will inspire others.”
According to the European Commision, the Avior Airlines (certified in Venezuela) is added to the list “due to unaddressed safety deficiencies”, detected by the European Aviation Safety Agency during the assessment for a third country operator authorization (TCO).
Mustique Airways and Aviation Company Urga, respectively certified in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Ukraine, have “made safety improvements” since their inclusion to the Air Safety List in May 2017, allowing them to be removed from the list.
Following the latest update, a total of 178 airlines are banned from EU skies. These include 172 airlines certified in 16 states that are included due to a lack of safety oversight by the aviation authorities from these states.
It also includes six individual airlines, based on safety concerns with regard to these airlines themselves: Avior Airlines (Venezuela), Iran Aseman Airlines (Iran), Iraqi Airways (Iraq), Blue Wing Airlines (Suriname), Med-View Airlines (Nigeria) and Air Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe).
An additional six airlines are subject to operational restrictions and can only fly to the EU with specific aircraft types: Afrijet and Nouvelle Air Affaires SN2AG (Gabon), Air Koryo (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), Air Service Comores (the Comoros), Iran Air (Iran) and TAAG Angola Airlines (Angola).
The EU Air Safety List is the list of non-European airlines that do not meet international safety standards and are therefore subject to an operating ban or operational restrictions within the European Union.
Source – AeroTime
