EU Air Safety List adds Russian airlines

According to the recently issued press release on the European Commission website, 21 Russian airlines have been added to the EU Air Safety List due to safety concerns related to Russia allowing operations without required air safety certification. This way, the country violates the international aviation safety standards.

Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean explained:

“The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency has allowed Russian airlines to operate hundreds of foreign-owned aircraft without a valid Certificate of Airworthiness. The Russian airlines concerned have knowingly done so in breach of relevant international safety standards. This is not only a clear breach of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (the Chicago Convention), but it also poses an immediate safety threat.

“We are living in the context of Russia's unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine. However, I want to make it crystal-clear that this decision is not another sanction against Russia; it has been taken solely on the basis of technical and safety grounds. We do not mix safety with politics.”

After the addition of the 21 Russian airlines, a total of 117 airlines are currently banned from using EU airspace. Among them, several companies have been found to allow significant safety deficiencies: Avior Airlines based in Venezuela, Blue Wing Airlines from Suriname, Iran Aseman Airlines - Iran, Iraqi Airways headquartered in Iraq, Med-View Airlines from Nigeria, as well as Air Zimbabwe.

Iran Air and the North Korean company Air Koryo were also imposed flying restrictions due to violation of safety regulations. Iran Air and Air Koryo are allowed to fly within the European Union only if using the aircraft types imposed by EU rules.

The decisions were voted unanimously by aviation safety experts in the EU Air Safety Committee meeting last week. The conference was chaired by the European Commission and backed-up by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the European Parliament's Transport Committee.

 

Source: ec.europa.eu