The European Commission (EC) has updated its EU Air Safety List, the list of airlines that do not meet international safety standards, and are therefore subject to an operating ban or operational restrictions within the European Union (EU).
In its announcement, the EC said that nationally, all airlines certified in Zambia had been cleared from the list while Air Madagascar (MD, Antananarivo) along with a trio of Indonesian airlines - Citilink (QG, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta), Lion Air (JT, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta), and Batik Air (ID, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) - had all been removed in an individual capacity. Rounding off the changes was IranAir (IR, Tehran Mehrabad) the majority of whose fleet had now been cleared for operations to the EU.
“Aviation safety is my top priority and today’s update illustrates our continuous efforts to offer the highest level of air safety to European citizens," EU Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, said. "I am happy to say that after seven years of work and extensive European technical assistance, we were able to clear all Zambian air carriers from the list. Following my visit to Iran in April, a technical assessment was successfully carried out in May. Based on this I am happy to announce that we are now also able to allow most aircraft from Iran Air back into European skies.”
With this revision, a total of 216 airlines are currently banned from EU skies; 214 of those owing to a lack of adequate safety oversight on behalf of their respective national civil aviation authorities. Two individual airlines - Iraqi Airways (IA, Baghdad) (Iraq) and Blue Wing Airlines (BWI, Paramaribo Zorg en Hoop) (Suriname) - have been banned due to safety concerns. An additional six airlines are subject to operational restrictions and can only fly to the EU with specific aircraft types: Afrijet Business Service (J7, Libreville Leon M'Ba) and Nouvelle Air Affaires Gabon (NVS, Libreville Leon M'Ba) (Gabon); Air Koryo (JS, Pyongyang) (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea); Air Service Comores (the Comoros); Iraqi Airways (IA, Baghdad) (Iran); and TAAG Angola Airlines (DT, Luanda 4 De Fevereiro) (Angola).
For its part, TAAG has now been granted a Third Country Operator (TCO) license by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) thereby allowing it to serve any EU member state as well as the four EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). TAAG's operations are, however, restricted to certain aircraft types namely its B737-700s, B777-200(ER)s and B777-300(ER)s.
