Tuesday June 30, 05:42 PM
Top EU transport official calls for global airline blacklist
BRUSSELS (AFP) - EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani called on Tuesday for a worldwide blacklist of unsafe airlines after a Yemeni airliner crashed off the coast of the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros.
"My idea is to propose a worldwide blacklist similar to the one we have in the European Union," Tajani told journalists in Brussels.
"If we want to achieve better safety I'm convinced that we need to have a worldwide blacklist, the European blacklist works pretty well in Europe," he said. "It would be a safety guarantee for all."
"Otherwise it's going to be difficult to have an adequate level of safety."
France's transport minister said that French inspectors had noted numerous faults on the Yemeni jet that crashed Tuesday with 153 people on board and the company was already being closely monitored by EU authorities.
Tajani also held talks with the head of the European Aviation Safety Agency and had asked the Yemenia airline to appear before the agency to give an account of the crash.
The agency will now try to speed up the application of air safety rules for operators coming from non-EU countries, a statement from Tajani's office said.
It said that a European air safety conference would be organised "as quickly as possible" to determine the training needs of people such as pilots and air traffic controllers.
Yemenia is not on the EU blacklist, which was to be updated this week.
The Yemenia flight started in a Paris airport Monday when an Airbus A330-200 aircraft took off for Marseille and then on to the Yemeni capital Sanaa. There passengers changed to an Airbus A310 and departed for the Comoros via Djibouti.
"It's a shame that they changed aircraft, because the controls in Europe are very, very severe and we have a blacklist, but this blacklist is only valid in Europe," Tajani said.
The EU's blacklist, which is regularly updated, contains the names of more than 200 airlines or firms of concern which are either banned from operating in Europe or only allowed under strict restrictions.
Most of the airlines targetted operate out of Africa, mainly in Angola, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Swaziland.
Some of them do not operate in Europe, but their inclusion would undoubtedly be bad for business.
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