The European Union Commission added on Monday 20 Russian airlines to its EU Air Safety List, the list of airlines subject to an operating ban or operational restrictions within the EU for not complying with international safety standards.
Safety concerns
Under the recent update, a total of 21 Russian-certified airlines are now included on the EU Air Safety List.
According to the commission, The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency has been reregistering foreign-owned aircraft in light of the imposed western sanctions, “knowingly allowing their operation without valid certificates of airworthiness, in breach of international aviation safety standards,” the commission stated.
Invalid certificates
“The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency has allowed Russian airlines to operate hundreds of foreign-owned aircraft without a valid Certificate of Airworthiness. The airlines concerned have knowingly done so in breach of relevant international safety standards,” Commissioner for Transport, Adina Vălean said, stressing that “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.”
Vălean further underlined that the commission’s decision is not related to the ongoing conflict nor is it another sanction against Russia, “it has been taken solely based on technical and safety grounds,” she said, noting that the commission does not “mix safety with politics.”
An extended list
A total of 117 airlines are banned from the EU’s airspace including 90 airlines certified in 15 different states due to inadequate safety oversight by the local aviation authorities and 21 airlines certified in Russia, as well as six individual airlines from other states over serious safety deficiencies.
The extended list includes Avior Airlines (Venezuela), Blue Wing Airlines (Suriname), Iran Aseman Airlines (Iran), Iraqi Airways (Iraq), Med-View Airlines (Nigeria) and Air Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe).
Moreover, the list highlighted that Iran’s Iran Air and North Korea’s Air Koryo are subject to operational restrictions and can only fly to the EU with specific aircraft types.
A collective decision
The update is based on the collective decision of Member State aviation safety experts, who met on 5 April under the patronage of the EU Air Safety Committee, led by the commission with support from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
