On 9 December, the European Commission updated the EU Air Safety List, a list of air carriers from non-EU countries which do not fulfil the necessary international safety standards and seeks to ensure the highest level of air safety for Europeans and all other passengers travelling in the European Union.

The updated list contains now 115 airlines that are banned from the EU skies, among which 109 due to a lack of safety oversight by the aviation authorities from states in which they have been certified and 6 individual airlines due to safety concerns with regard to these airlines themselves. Furthermore, other three airlines are subject to operational restrictions and can only fly to the EU with specific aircraft types. The update affects positively the airlines certified in the Republic of The Gambia, since they have been released from the list following improvements to the aviation safety situation in that country. However, the Armenian Civil Aviation Committee has been put under heightened scrutiny because of signs of a decrease in safety oversight.

The assessment of the list is made against international safety standards, and notably the standards promulgated by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The update is based on the opinion of the aviation safety experts from the Member States who met under the auspices of the EU Air Safety Committee (ASC), the latter chaired by the European Commission with the support of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), as well as of the European Parliament’s Transport Committee. 

Throughout the 2020, the Commission, which constantly collaborates with national aviation authorities with the aim of raising global safety standards, will implement two cooperation projects with Angola and Mozambique to further improve their safety oversight systems.

Esmeralda Dedej