Air Madagascar aircraft added to EC aviation blacklist
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Air Madagascar’s Boeing 767s have been added to the European Commission’s aviation blacklist on safety grounds. The new ruling states that the wide-body planes, which operate an Antananarivo-Paris route, have been banned “because of significant safety deficiencies requiring decisive action”. Meanwhile, four Indonesian cargo airlines have been removed from the blacklist, but many of the country’s passenger airlines, including Lion Air and Sriwijaya Air, remain on the list. All Philippine carriers, including national carrier Philippines Airlines and Cebu Pacific, remain blacklisted. The EU noted that authorities in Cambodia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan “have intensified their efforts to enforce the international safety standards”. “The Commission is ready to work together with the authorities of those countries which have safety problems to overcome them as quickly and as efficiently as possible. In the meantime, safety comes first,” said Siim Kallas, vice president for transport at EC. “We cannot afford any compromise in this area. Where we have evidence inside or outside the European Union that air carriers are not performing safe operations we must act to exclude any risks to safety.” The updated blacklist includes all carriers in 21 countries, namely Afghanistan, Angola, Benin, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon (with the exception of three carriers), Indonesia (with the exception of six carriers), Kazakhstan (with the exception of Air Astana), Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Mauritania, Mozambique, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome & Principe, Sudan, Swaziland and Zambia. The list also includes three individual carriers: Blue Wing Airlines from Surinam, Meridian Airways from Ghana, and Silverback Cargo Freighters from Rwanda. Of all carriers subject to EU restrictions, almost 50 percent are based in Africa. IATA noted recently that Africa’s accident rate in 2010 was 12 times the global average.
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