BANNED AIRLINES LISTS PUBLISHED
BBC
Monday, 29 August 2005, 13:10 GMT 14:10 UK
The lists tell passengers which airlines are banned in France and
Belgium France and Belgium have published separate blacklists of
airlines banned from their territory on safety grounds. The lists
were posted on the websites of the French civil aviation authority
(DGAC) and Belgium’s Transport Ministry on Monday.
Switzerland has also promised to provide its own list on Thursday.
The moves follow a plane crash in Venezuela on 16 August, in which 152
French passengers died on their way home to the island of Martinique.
Meanwhile on Saturday, at a meeting of the European Civil Aviation
Conference in Bucharest, experts called for a Europe-wide definition
of common criteria for blacklists.
The European Commission reached a deal in February to allow the
creation of EU-wide blacklists of unsafe airlines by the end of
the year.
But correspondents say it is unclear whether agreement on the
blacklists is possible, with Italy calling for just a list of safe
companies.
Charter transparency
The two countries’ lists were mutually exclusive, though several
names of airlines coincided with those on a list published in the UK.
AIRLINE BLACKLISTS
French list Air Koryo, North Korea Air Saint-Thomas, US Virgin Islands
International Air Service, Liberia Air Mozambique (LAM), including
its subsidiary Transairways Phuket Airlines, Thailand
——————————————————————————–
Belgian list Africa Lines, Central African Republic Air Memphis, Egypt
Air Van Airlines, Armenia Central Air Express, Democratic Republic of
Congo ICTTPW, Libya International Air Tours Ltd., Nigeria Johnsons Air
Ltd., Ghana Silverback Cargo Freighters, Rwanda South Airlines, Ukraine
In addition to the list of banned airlines, the DGAC site also
published a list of authorised companies including charter airlines.
French Transport Minister Dominique Perben said last week that by
the end of the year passengers taking charter or tour group flights
would have the right to be told which company was operating the flight.
Checks on aircraft making stopovers at French airports will also be
stepped up.
Switzerland has already revealed the names of some banned airlines,
but said it would publish a full list on 1 September.
Passenger revolt
On Wednesday night, 235 passengers of a Tunisian charter plane flying
from Paris to the Tunisian island of Djerba refused to re-board a
plane which was forced to return to Orly airport for checks shortly
after take-off.
That incident came a week after the Venezuela crash, which involved
a Colombian-owned plane.
August 2005 has been marked by a string of major plane disasters.
In less then two weeks, three planes have crashed in Greece, Venezuela
and Peru – all three of them operated by minor airlines.
More than 300 people have lost their lives in the three accidents.
The issue of blacklisting came to prominence when 148 people – most
of them French – died in January 2004 in a crash involving an airline
which had been banned from Swiss airspace, a fact which the passengers
had no way of knowing.