Phuket Airlines banned from EU

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Phuket Airlines will be banned from EU Airspace

 

EU to blacklist unsafe airlines

 

Leo Cendrowicz in Brussels and agencies

Friday August 19, 2005

The Guardian

 

 

The European Commission yesterday announced that it intends to name and shame airlines that fail to meet basic safety requirements.

The proposal comes as investigators scrutinise the safety records of Cyprus's Helios Airways, following a crash near Athens on Sunday that killed all 121 passengers.

 

The Colombian government has also halted operations of West Caribbean Airways after the deaths of all 160 people aboard a plane which crashed in Venezuela on Tuesday .

 

 

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The EU transport commissioner, Jacques Barrot, yesterday promised a proposal by October for a public website for passengers and for more information sharing by European air safety authorities.

Mr Barrot told France Inter radio that the "terrible catastrophe" in Venezuela showed that an airlines blacklist was now vital . The list will be modelled on the blacklists used in the United States by the Federal Aviation Authority.

 

The French transport minister, Dominique Perben, added that he was working with Britain, Germany, and Italy on the European blacklist.

 

The internet blacklist will include airlines or aircrafts that have been either banned or restricted in any of the EU's 25 countries. The French government is also pushing for "blue label" awards for safer carriers starting early next year.

 

"The European Commission will watch over the full application of existing measures and those under preparation to ensure the security of all European flights, including from third countries at departure or to destinations in member states," Mr Barrot said.

 

The commission had already learnt key lessons from Boeing 737 crash last year in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, Mr Barrot said. It later emerged that the company involved, Flash Airlines, had been banned from Swiss air space, but neither passengers nor the travel agency knew this.

 

The commission's proposal, which would affect both standard and charter flights, is expected to say that passengers need to be told when one airline is switched for another for any reason between travellers booking and flying.

 

If there is a safety problem, passengers may benefit from a cut-off date - probably seven days - to cancel their reservation, at no additional cost.

 

The commission proposal is also likely to grant passengers the right to demand an alternative flight operated by a carrier considered safe if the airline changes after the journey has already begun, for example, for the return leg.

 

If that is not possible, passengers may be paid compensation. Mr Barrot wants the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to take responsibility for overseeing much of the safety certification, which is currently split between national and European bodies.

 

"Although the standards of aviation safety are very high in Europe, the responsibility for oversight is still divided," said Daniel Höltgen, a spokesman for the EASA.

 

Problems of EU co-ordination emerged in May when the Dutch, German and French authorities banned Turkish airline Onur Air from their airspace, after problems occurred during ramp safety checks.

 

But other EU governments failed to follow suit - even accepting Onur Air flights which had been turned away from France, Germany and the Netherlands.

 

In Britain, the Department of Transport publishes on its website counties and airlines whose aviation standards fail to meet those set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, a UN agency.

 

The countries denied permits to operate in the UK are: Tajikistan, Swaziland, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Equatorial Guinea, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

 

The website also says that permits have been refused to Air Mauritanie and Thailand's Phuket Airlines because of safety concerns.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/airlines/story/0...1552292,00.html

 

List of banned airlines:

 

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_...ion_026674.hcsp

 

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