‘Europe’s blacklist of African airlines political’

[TGD]

 AFRICAN airlines' chiefs yesterday hit hard at Europe, accusing it of gradually killing the continent's aviation industry under a politically-motivated safety standard.

The region's delegates to the 20th Air Finance for Africa Aviation conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said if the European Union (EU) is concerned about safety, it should have adopted an approach similar to the United States (U.S.) safe sky policy instead of an outright blacklist of the operators.

Besides the airlines' chiefs, officials of the African Union (AU) also queried the actions of the EU counterparts in banning the operators from flying into Europe.

The AU leaders therefore urged Europe to take a cue from the U.S. policy, as against what they described as "punitive measures" designed to castrate African airlines.

The U.S. created the Safe Skies for Africa Programme (SSFA) to promote sustainable improvements in aviation safety and security in Africa, and to create the environment necessary to foster the growth of aviation services between the continent and the U.S.

The U.S. uses the policy to engage the African countries as valued economic and aviation partners in a safe, secure, and liberalised environment.

The programme recognises that safe skies are a prerequisite for increased trade and investment, and long-term economic development in Africa.

Convener of the conference and renowned aviation consultant, Nick Fadugba and EU First Consular, Mr. Graeme Preston, said the ban exists because Europeans demand information on any airline in Africa, Middle East, and Asia.

Fadugba however asked the EU to partner with airlines in Africa with the assistance from its inspectors to work with African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) on solutions to the problems rather the blanket ban.

He said Africa could also ban European carriers from their skies if EU refuses to convince the world that the continent's airspace is not safe.

But the EU pledged its readiness to work with African airlines but without compromising on safety standards.

The EU had hammered airlines from 14 African countries by barring them from landing in European airports.

In 2006, EU banned 92 airlines, most of them from Africa, declaring that they did not meet international aviation standards.

The EU created the blacklist in response to several fatal airline crashes in Greece, Italy, and Egypt in 2004 and 2005 and had since updated the list. As at July 2010, the list had grown to over 278 airlines.

Fadugba however noted that the recent ban on LAM Mozambique was facilitated by information supplied by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the global aviation regulatory body over the carrier's alleged safety deficiency.

He said: "We are ready to work with the AU, the airlines, with countries which have safety issues, but we will not compromise on safety. Blacklist is the invention of the media; we don't call it blacklist, we call it operating safety list."

The expert said AU should not misconstrue the measure to mean selective treatment of the continent's airlines, stressing that besides Africa, he said so many other airlines from the Philippines, Karzasthan, others, which have appalling safety records had equally been sanctioned.

According to him, "this is in everybody's interest to improve safety around the world. Safety in Africa is poor and the record shows an alarming eight per cent of accidents recorded in the continent."

He said it was unfortunate that Europe becomes the beneficiary of these bans, citing the case of Air Ivoire, which had ceased operations, with Air France taking monopoly of the defunct carrier's operations and allegedly charging higher fares to Europe.

"I can see the perception of the EU ban by Africa. When these African airlines are banned, European airlines begin to take over, to service these routes hitherto operated by the airlines. African airlines will be making a huge mistake if they start pointing accusing finger at EU, rather, it should challenge Africa on air safety," he said.



The Guardian