Recent airplane crashes within the European Union has increased the enthusiasm for legislative action to create a blacklist of airlines which don’t meet safety and security standards set by the EU. The goal of the Airline Blacklist would be to use a “shame and blame” publicity campaign to force conformity with safety regulations for standard and charter flights. It would also provide information to other countries on the status of airlines’s safety records and make the skies safer.
The European Commission proposed the EU Airline Blacklist in February. EU governments and the European Parliament must approve it across the 25-nation bloc, a time consuming effort. The airplanes crashes which killed over 300 people in August has put more pressure on the EU to pass the legislation.
Under the plan, an airline banned in one EU nation would be barred from providing services to and from any other. The list would include European and non-European air carriers.
Compiling an EU blacklist and making it public will require the approval of all EU governments and the European Parliament. In the past, the EU executive commission and EU governments have disagreed about the wisdom of publishing the names of airlines with questionable safety records.
USA Today News Report
There is a great deal of disagreement on what the criteria for such a blacklist would entail. The various governments’ agencies, usually the Transportation Commission, oversees much of the airline industry but the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has responsibility for most of the safety certification and regulations. Each of these groups are split between national and European government bodies, adding to the network of problems to determine criteria and standards.
In Britain, the Department of Transport publishes on its website counties and airlines whose aviation standards fail to meet those set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, a UN agency.
The countries denied permits to operate in the UK are: Tajikistan, Swaziland, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Equatorial Guinea, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The website also says that permits have been refused to Air Mauritanie and Thailand’s Phuket Airlines because of safety concerns.
Guardian UK News Report
To add to the confusion, airlines are demanding to know why they are or may be on the list even if they have no record of an air crash.
The EU transport spokesman, Stephaan De Rynck, said, “We are operating in a very safe environment, but of course the tragic accidents we have had have to give us a push to improve safety standards even further.”
He said the “incoherence” of country-by-country rules was highlighted in May by a Turkish airline that was banned from four European countries but simply started flying to Belgium, which had not banned it.
The EU approach is partly intended to replace a country-by-country approach that has already created confusion when one country bans an airline and another country does not.
In addition, some banned airlines have complained that they never had a crash, and demanded to know what criteria were used to declare them unsafe.
International Herald Tribute News Report
According to many, the blacklist does nothing to encourage airline safety. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) of Geneva introduced a voluntary safety audit in 2003 to standardize airline safety ratings. Many say this is a much better route to take than creating a public blacklist.
“There is something wrong with the system that allows (some countries) to certify an airline that we (in Europe) don’t think is safe,” AEA spokesman David Henderson said. He said a blacklist would be helpful if it were followed up by checks with authorities in the suspect airlines’ countries to make sure standards were raised.
USA Today News Report
This is a key point. National governments can set standards for airlines flying out of their countries, but regulations are needed to check and verify safety standards on airplanes arriving in their country. Even then, random checks should be allowed by an EU agency to make sure airlines meet safety regulations no matter where they fly.
According to a new online brochure by the EASA called “The Safer Skies Brochure”:
A uniform system will bring advantages throughout European society. Citizens and passengers can be further reassured that all civil aircraft have been designed, built, and maintained to the same high standards, no matter where they are based.
How does the US set safety standards for international airlines? The International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency, sets country based standards rather than airline specific. On the domestic front, the FAA has very high standards and regulation for safety, often setting the standard for other government agencies worldwide. Still, FAA representatives and aircraft engineers are closely watching to see how this turns out and how it will affect the airline industry in general.
