Wednesday, June 21, 2006

BRUSSELS, (AFP): The European Union on Tuesday added three airlines, including Suriname-based Blue Wing, to its list of carriers banned from flying EU skies on account of safety concerns.

In the first update of the blacklist since it was launched in March, the European Commission said that the roster now covered 95 airlines judged to be too dangerous to enter EU airspace.

The European Union launched on March 22 its first-ever joint blacklist of mostly African airlines considered to be unsafe, in a move spurred by a spate of fatal crashes last year.

"Clearly since adopting of the first blacklist in March we have seen the important impact of European ban, which weighs much more heavily than a national ban," said commission spokesman for transport issues, Stefaan De Rynck.

The commission said that some companies and countries that had ignored national bans were now trying to correct their safety problems.

EU member states were stung into action after a string of deadly accidents last year that highlighted the fragmented approach to air safety in the 25-nation bloc.

Most of the carriers on the list are based in Africa and there are blanket bans on airlines from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia and Swaziland.

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