Brussels, 20/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 20 June, the European Commission adopted its first quarterly update of the list of airlines banned from the European Union drawn up in March. This new list replaces the previous one and is now available on the Commission's website. In updating the list, as it is required to do on a regular basis, the Commission again consulted all airlines and national civil aviation authorities that might be affected. The Commission was assisted by the Aviation Safety Committee of Member States experts, who unanimously approved the list.
The main changes made to the initial list adopted on 22 March of this year (Commission regulation 474/2006) are: (a) three companies have been added because of national measures notified by the Member States - Blue Wing of Surinam (notified by France) and Sky Gate International (licensed in Kyrgyzstan and notified by the UK) are now subject to a total ban, and Air West of Sudan (notified by Germany) is subject to operating restrictions; (b) one company Star Jet of Kyrgyzstan has been banned on the initiative of the Commission after being found to be the same company as Star Air, licensed in Sierra Leone and already banned in the European Union; (c) the lists of companies licensed in five countries now subject to a total ban have been updated on the basis of the latest register published by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (13 more for the Democratic Republic of Congo, 26 for Equatorial Guinea, 19 for Liberia, 13 for Sierra Leone and 10 for Swaziland); (d) one company Buraq Air of Libya, previously subject to operational restrictions on its cargo activities has been withdrawn from the list as it no longer carries out this type of activity.
A European inspection visit established that companies based in Mauritania need not be subject to a ban on operations. Finally, not all the conditions for lifting the ban on GST Aero of Kazakhstan have been fulfilled.
As well as imposing bans on airlines and providing useful information to passengers wishing to travel outside Europe, the blacklist has proved to be an effective incentive, with a number of countries and companies that had taken either no or only inadequate action agreeing to cooperate with the Commission in correcting the security problems identified, points out a Commission press release, welcoming the leverage the adoption of the blacklist has exercised internationally.