14 airlines banned from flying to France and Belgium


In Short:

Some observers have raised doubts whether the publication of a blacklist with air carriers banned from the French and Belgian airspaces will be of much use.

Background:

After a spate of five airline crashes during the month of August, the Commission hopes Parliament will speed up discussions on a proposal that would empower the Commission to publish a consolidated list of all air carriers banned from EU countries' airspace for safety reasons. The proposal would also give passengers a right to know in advance which airline will be the flight operator. Forestalling the coming EU Regulation, France and Belgium have decided to publish the lists of banned airlines which already existed in the two countries.

Issues:

On 29 August 2005, France has banned the following five airlines from entering its airspace:

Air Koryo (North Korea)
Air Saint Thomas (US)
International Air Services (Liberia)
Lineas Aer de Mozambique (Mozambique); including its chartering partner Transairways
Phuket Airlines (Thailand)
The Belgian blacklist, published on the same day, is composed of nine airlines:

Africa Lines (Republic of Central Africa)
Air Memphis (Egypt)
Air Van Airlines (Armenia)
Central Air Express (Democratic Republic of Congo)
I.C.T.T.P.W. (Libya)
International Air Tours Limited (Nigeria)
Johnsons Air Limited (Ghana)
Silverback Cargo Freighters (Rwanda)
South Airlines (Ukraine)
Due to different criteria, no airline appears on both lists, and no airline involved in the recent crashes is on them either.

Positions:

Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot declared 2006 "the year of air safety": "This summer will have served to raise consciousness."

EASA, the Cologne-based European air security agency, says it is the body best suited to compile an EU list of banned air carriers: "From a technical point of view, the logical consequence will be that we will be in charge of it", a spokesman said.

Maxime Coffin, director of France's DGAC civil aviation authority, said: "This list also has the merit, we hope, of leading the way at a European level, so that we get a European blacklist as soon as possible. We believe publication is a deterrent, a warning to other companies that have not been sufficiently rigorous, that shows them that if they don't take the necessary steps, one day they too could be banned."

Marc Chernet, the president of an association for victims of the Flash Airlines flight, which crashed in the Red Sea in June 2004, said a system of "security grades" to rank airlines on their overall safety would be much more useful than the present approach: "Publishing lists is completely ineffective. A company that is unable to fly can easily make an agreement to fly in another company's name."

The transport ministry of the Netherlands does not believe in a merely national approach to the airline safety issue: "France and Belgium have announced their decision to publish a blacklist of unsafe airlines on the Internet. The Netherlands doesn't support that. It wants the European Commission to come up with a list of airlines that would be banned from the EU air space."

The German transport ministry took a similar approach. There are no plans for publishing a national list, a spokesperson said, but "when there will be uniform and transparent conditions at a European level, the German government will support this process."

The French National Union of Air Traffic Controllers (SNCTA) said that the publication was "merely a modest step in a field that needs much more to be done", asking for a European data base taking into account all in-flight incidents.

Antoine Hayem, air captain and webmaster for the Eurocockpit website, said: "The baseline to this all is the market in commercial aviation. Our partners don't have the least interest in buying our aeroplanes if they can't get them filled [with passengers]."

Captain Chawanit Chiamcharoenvut, executive vice president of Thailand's Phuket Airways, one of the airlines banned in France, asked to know what criteria France used to judge it: "I really don't understand what is the meaning of unsafe. Unsafe for what? Unsafe for operations or unsafe for what? Because we have never had a serious incident or accident, so I would like to ask back to the authorities what is the meaning of unsafe?"

Latest & next steps:


At a meeting of the European Civil Aviation Conference in Bucharest on 27 August 2005, more experts called for a Europe-wide definition of common criteria for blacklists.
The Swiss civil aviation authority said it will publish its own list on Thursday.
The European Parliament is likely to vote, before the end of the year, on the Commission's draft regulation to publish an EU-wide list of banned air carriers, based on common criteria.


Links


Official Documents


European Aviation Safety Agency

Commission: Draft Regulation on the information of air transport passengers on the identity of the operating carrier and on communication of safety information (16 February 2005) [FR] [DE]

Commission (Press release): European Commission actions in the field of aviation safety (17 August 2005) [FR]

Commission (DG Transport): Air passenger rights in the European Union [FR]

Parliament (Transport Committee, rapporteur Christine De Veyrac): Working Document on on the information of air transport passengers on the identity of the operating carrier and on communication of safety information (26 May 2005) [FR] [DE]

Governments


Belgium: Autorisations de vol aux compagnies aériennes non UE (29 August 2005)

France, civil aviation authority (DGAC): Transporteurs aériens de passagers autorisés et transporteurs aériens interdits pour la desserte de la France. (29 August 2005)

France, civil aviation authority (DGAC): Liste des Compagnies interdites (29 August 2005)

http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-143585-16&type=News

Of course nobody would have told us on 9/1/98 not to allow Tara to fly on swissair, a formerly reputable airline, now out of business due to poor management.

Should we be afraid to fly?
Written by Anastasia Tsakogia-Garaud
Tuesday, 30 August 2005
The recent air tragedies drew the attention to aviation safety regulations. Some countries start publishing blacklists of unsafe airlines. The EU announces that more rigorous measures will be taken to prevent air disasters.

August has been the deadliest month for airplane accidents over the last three years. Almost 350 people died in five crashes. Experts talk about a terrible coincidence and reassure us that flying is always the safest way to travel. Investigations on the causes of the accidents are in progress. However there is a prevailing assumption that the accidents could have been avoided if meticulous maintenance and quality controls had been performed on the aircrafts.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a UN organisation, is responsible for setting the international safety criteria. National aviation authorities are entitled to impose their bans on carriers that do not correspond to these criteria and forbid certain companies from flying in their airspace. However, in most countries this information is not made public. So far only the British ministry of transport has been publishing a list of banned companies on the ministry's website. In the aftermath of a recent series of air disasters France decided to publish its blacklist of airlines banned from the French airspace, as well as a white list of safe airlines. Belgium announced that it will also publish its own lists.

In response to the current situation the EU calls for more transparency of information on airlines and promises measures to assure the safety of flights. The creation of an EU –wide, joint blacklist of airlines had been proposed by the Commission at the beginning of this year and is currently under discussion at the EU level. The blacklist will comprise airlines and aircrafts banned or restricted in EU countries' airspace and it will be available on the internet. Enhancing the coordination at a European level and reviewing common rules for safety certification are fundamental. Harmonisation will not be that simple as proven by the case last May of the Turkish company Onur Air, banned by the French, German and Dutch authorities but accepted by Belgium.

Up to this point Europe's progress on the civil aviation field has been significant in a number of regulations, such as on independent accident investigation, occurrence reporting, information exchange and the organisation of checks on third-countries' aircrafts using EU airports. The Commission examines a new law that will oblige tour operators and travel agents to inform in advance their clients of the airline operating their flight. Package holiday travellers seem to be particularly affected by insufficient information concerning their flights, as they do not book directly with an airline. The crash in Egypt last year revealed that the passengers didn't know their were to fly with an Egyptian company called Flash Air and that neither the passengers or the travel agent knew this company had been banned by Switzerland.

European authorities also consider enhancing the role of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and extend the agency's competences to monitoring flight safety of EU and non-EU airlines and to certifying air crew. The EASA, which has been operating since 2003, assists in preparing EU legislation on civil aviation safety and environment protection. It cooperates with other international aviation organisation such as the Joint Aviation Authorities, Eurocontrol and the ICAO. The EASA will be probably the best qualified European agency to compile the common list of airlines.

By ensuring strict safety norms, rigorous controls, information sharing and transparency Europe could play an important role in aviation safety, provided that there is enough political will to harmonize legislation and action on the field. In the meantime, although the chances of being involved in an air accident are slight, about 1 in 11 million, it is better to get informed about who you are flying with.


http://www.newropeans-magazine.org/index.php?option=com...ew&id=2613&Itemid=84

Last Updated 31/08/2005, 13:23:17 Select text size:


A Thai airline banned from flying in French airspace because of safety concerns says it will try to improve maintenance standards.

Our South East Asia correspondent, Peter Lloyd, says the ban on Phuket Airlines comes after a series of incidents involving fuel leaks on 747 aircraft during takeoff in the Middle East and London.

In one case, a passenger revolt forced the pilot to abort takeoff and some passengers refused to re-board the aircraft.

Phuket Airlines was originally a domestic carrier, which last year launched long-haul, low cost flights.

It has also been blacklisted by the UK and The Netherlands because of safety concerns.

It is one of five airlines deemed unsafe by France's civil aviation officials who acted after a series of recent disasters around the world.

The others are from North Korea, the US, Liberia and Mozambique.



http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1449736.htm