Brussels, 02/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission updated the list of airlines banned in the European Union on Thursday 2 September. Two freight airlines from Ghana have been added to the list. The first, Meridian Airways, has been completely banned from operating in the EU. Despite the poor results in an inspection in a member state, the second carrier, Airlift International, was allowed to use one of its four Douglas DC8-63F aircraft. The Commission says that this update follows on from exceptional measures taken by the United Kingdom and Belgium which withdrew the above-mentioned companies' authorisation to operate in their air space. “We cannot afford any compromise in air safety,” said Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas. He went on to say that the EU would intervene every time “we have evidence that air carriers are not performing safe operations” or where “regulatory authorities fail in their obligation to enforce the safety standards”. The list will be reviewed in November at the next meeting of the Air Safety Committee.
Currently, five individual carriers are fully banned from operating in the European Union - Ariana Afghan Airlines (Afghanistan), Blue Wing Airlines (Surinam), Meridian Airways (Ghana), Siem Reap Airways International (Cambodia) and Silverback Cargo Freighters (Rwanda). All carriers from 17 countries - 278 companies in total - are banned: Angola, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, (with the exception of three carriers which operate under restrictions and conditions), Indonesia (with the exception of six carriers from which the restrictions have been fully removed), Kazakhstan (with the exception of one carrier which operates under restrictions and conditions), the Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Philippines, Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Principe, Sudan, Swaziland and Zambia. There are ten carriers allowed to operate under restrictions and conditions - Air Astana (Kazakhstan), Air Koryo (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), Airlift International (Ghana), Air Service Comores (Comores), Gabon Airlines, Afrijet and SN2AG (Gabon), Iran Air (Iran), TAAG Angola Airlines (Angola), and Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines (Ukraine). (A.By./transl.rt)