The European Commission released the latest update of the list of airlines prohibited from flying to or from any Member States of the European Union.
The “blacklist” released on 21 November 2011 is the 18th update of the Commission’s list of prohibited airlines and replaces its predecessor of April 2011.
The European Union followed the unanimous opinion of the Air Safety Committee. This Committee, on which all Member States, as well as the European Commission and Eurocontrol are represented,
has an advisory function in the field of air safety.
The Commission Vice-President, Siim Kallas, also responsible for transport, recalled that, in the field of aviation, safety always comes first, and that zero tolerance towards risk policy is therefore applied.
Both the Commission and the Air Safety Committee have welcomed the efforts accomplished by all Member States to reform the civil aviation system by improving safety and ensuring the respect of international safety standards. The Commission also stressed that it was ready to actively support measures undertaken in this area by any Member State.
Let us also stress that the special efforts provided by Albania and the Russian Federation enable them to prevent any air carrier licensed in one of these two states from being blacklisted. Both states worked in close and earnest cooperation with the European Commission.
TAAG Angola Airlines was also allowed to add two aircraft to those currently operating in the European Union.
On the contrary, part of the Jordan Aviation fleet was excluded from European airspace, while the air carrier Rollins Air, certified in Honduras, was entirely excluded.
The complete list of airlines banned in the European Union is available here: http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air-ban/doc/list_en.pdf
