29 FlightCom Magazine
airlines that are not allowed to operate in
European airspace. The Air Safety List was
introduced in 2006 and is maintained by
the European Commission, based on advice
from the EU Air Safety Committee. The
primary cause of an airline being included
on the Air safety List is because the civil
aviation authority (CAA) in the airline’s
home country provides inadequate oversight
of the country’s airline industry. In effect,
this means that the EU does not trust a
county’s aviation regulator of a country tokeep unsafe airlines from operating.
This means that all airlines from such
countries are listed on the Air Safety List,
unless the airline can prove to the EU
that it meets the EUs safety standards. In
2016 there were 20 countries where CAA
oversight does not meet EU standards,
accounting for 228 of the 230 airlines fully
banned from EU airspace.
In most instances, a listing on the Air
Safety List does not mean that the EU has
inspected a specific airline and found it
unsafe, it simply means that the EU doesnot trust the CAA in the airline’s home
country to certify that it is safe. In effect, the
EU assumes airlines from countries with
inadequate CAA oversight are unsafe unless
the airline approaches the EU authorities
and proves otherwise. Some of these airlines
actually have strong operational and safety
practices, but for various reasons they have
not approached the EU to seek removal
from the Air Safety List.
There are just two airlines listed on
the Air Safety List due to safety concernsspecific to the airline. Such concerns
are most often related to poor aircraft
maintenance, obsolete aircraft, or recent
accidents.
The Air Safety List is divided into two
Annexes. For airlines listed in Annex A,
every aircraft in the fleet is banned from
EU airspace. Airlines listed in Annex B are
allowed to operate flights to the EU with
specific aircraft, which are listed in the
airlines Air Safety List entry. The cleared
aircraft are generally the most modern in
the airline’s fleet or have been specificallyinspected by EU officials.
An airline listed on the Air Safety List
can apply to the European Commission for
removal and present proof that its operational
and safety practices meet EU standards. The
EU will then assess the airline, including its
safety record, operational and maintenance
standards, and fleet composition. Should
the EU determine that the airline meets all
relevant international safety standards, it
will remove the airline from the Air Safety
List.
Although the classification criteria
appear simple, in practice they can be
subjective due to the complexity of factors
involved. Thus, an example of an Annex A
airline is Equatorial Congo Airlines. The
airline, which operates as ECAir, is listed
in Annex A, like all other carriers from
the Republic of the Congo. ECAir does
not operate its own aircraft, but instead
contracts its operations out to European
airlines Jetairfly and Privatair. The
European airlines provide both the aircraft
and the flight crews for the flights, allowing
the airline to evade the ban on flights to the
EU. Thus, the airline is listed as Preferred
in the iJET Worldcue Airline Monitor,
contingent on the airline continuing its
practice of contracting its flights out to
European carriers.
An example of an Annex B airline is
TAAG Airlines of Angola, yet all other
Angolan carriers are listed in Annex A. All
six of the airline’s Boeing 777 aircraft are
exempt from the EU ban, as are four of its
five Boeing 737-700s. However, all three of
the airline’s older Boeing 737-200s were
included in the EU ban. The airline has
passed IATA’s IOSA Audit, certifying that
it meets international safety standards, and
is listed as Preferred in the iJET Worldcue
Airline Monitor.AFRICAN PUSH-BACK
Not unnaturally, this ‘blacklist has
caused much resentment amongst African
airlines and states, especially those
adversely affected. The accusation is that
it is simply a thinly veiled strategy to
prejudice African carriers in favour of the
European based carriers which then have
less competition on African routes.
Flightglobal reported that African
Airlines Association (AFRAA) secretary
general Elijah Chingosho has criticised
this ‘unfair’ approach. He acknowledged
the need for better safety in the region- although statistics have improved, and
Cameroon Airlines flight UYC070.LAM flight TM 470 crash site.