Kam Air (RQ, Kabul) has been granted European traffic rights by the Afghan Civil Aviation Authority (ACAA) and has said it would exercise those rights should Afghanistan be removed from the European Union's blacklist.
Speaking during a ceremony last week in which the ACAA renewed the carrier's AOC, Kam Air Executive Vice President Farid Paikar told the Tolo news agency: “Our success in the assessment process has enabled us to have the right to fly to Europe and in the near future we will start the flights."
The ACAA was blacklisted by the EU in 2010 resulting in all Afghan-registered carriers being banned from the bloc. The regulator is reportedly working on extricating itself from the list in a bid to see operators such as Kam Air and Ariana Afghan Airlines (FG, Kabul) start their own services to Europe
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has since confirmed to ch-aviation that the ACAA has indeed reached out to it. In a statement, the regulator said that, as an initial step towards its removal from the blacklist, the ACAA has been instructed to first of all request a meeting with the European Commission (EC).
"The Commission now looks forward to the ACAA to initiate this procedure," it said.
As previously reported, Kam Air acquired its first A340-300 - YA-KMT (msn 278) - earlier this year with plans to use it to develop its international operations. In July, Kam Air CEO Samad Osman Samadi said the 18-year-old widebody jet would be leased out to Ariana Afghan Airlines for Hajj flights to Saudi Arabia. ADS-B data shows the aircraft was indeed active over the Hajj pilgrim-drop phase which ran between August 14 and 21.
