Brussels, 11/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - All airlines from Libya have now been added to the EU Air Safety List and are banned from operating in European airspace. The country has therefore been added to the other twenty or so countries on the list of around 300 airlines banned from operating in the EU.
On Thursday 11 December, the European Commission updated the list of airlines subject to a ban or restrictions on operating in the European Union. The EU had significantly stepped up its efforts to help Libya guarantee a sufficient level of security to enable its airlines to fly in EU airspace again. Nonetheless, according to the European Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, the situation has got worse in the country and the Libyan civil aviation authority is unable to fulfil its international aviation security obligations. The Commissioner, however, reiterated the willingness of her services to help the Libyan aviation sector, “as soon as the situation on the ground will allow for this”.
The twenty or so countries whose airlines, with a few exceptions, are still included on the EU blacklist are: Afghanistan, Angola, Benin, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon (with the exception of 3 airlines which operate under restrictions and conditions), Indonesia (with the exception of 5 airlines), Kazakhstan (with the exception of one airline which operates under restrictions and conditions), Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Libya, Mozambique, Nepal, Philippines (with the exception of two airlines), Sierra Leone, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sudan and Zambia. (MD)