Russian airlines spared from EU blacklist
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No Russian airlines have been added to the latest EU aviation blacklist, despite concerns over the country’s safety standards. The European Commission released its latest list of airlines banned from EU airspace today, with very few changes from the previous version. Most significantly, the EU said that “close and intense cooperation” with the aviation authorities of Russia meant that airlines from the country could continue operating in EU airspace.
The EC statement said that Russia agreed “to adopt strong measures in order to control and contain any risks to safety of their air carriers flying into the EU. Therefore, no measures were necessary by the Commission”. It added however, that the EC would undertake “close monitoring of all operations of Russian air carriers into the EU”.
The EC’s vice president for transport, Siim Kallas said; “Safety comes first. 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 list has bans all airlines from 21 countries from EU airspace, including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia (with the exception of six carriers), Kazakhstan (with the exception of Air Astana), the Philippines, Sudan and Zambia.
New additions to the aviation blacklist include Jordan Aviation and Honduras-based Rollins Air.