EU airspace ban undermines confidence in African airlines

By John Oyuke

The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) has expressed concern about the European Union’s latest list of airlines banned from the European airspace due to safety concerns.

According to AFRAA, a trade association of African airlines,13 of the 17 countries affected by the EU ban are from Africa. A total of 111 African airlines have been "blacklisted."

Secretary General Nick Fadugba said while the EU list may be well intended, its main achievement has been to undermine international confidence in the African airline industry. "The ultimate beneficiaries of the ban are European airlines, which dominate the African skies to the disadvantage of African carriers," he said in a statement released yesterday.

Fadugba added that if any list is to be published, it should be done so by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the global regulator of aviation safety.

He observed that the international civil aviation body has a known track record of impartiality.

The association asserted that the EU list can damage the reputation and business of many scheduled African airlines whose safety records and adherence to ICAO safety standards are comparable to the best airlines anywhere in the world.

The Association contends that a detailed examination of the EU list reveals some contradictions.

Safety challenges

For example, it points out, majority of the African airlines on the list have never operated scheduled flights to Europe, do not plan to do so and have no aircraft with the range to fly to any EU state.

In addition, the list includes many airlines that only exist on paper and are not operational.

"The list indicates that neither the operating license nor the ICAO registration number of most of the banned airlines are known," Fadugba pointed out.

He added that in contrast to the position taken by the European Union on African air safety challenges, the United States has introduced the "Safe Skies for Africa" initiative aimed at upgrading capacity, developing skills and providing infrastructure to improve safety.

All this, he said, is being done at a time when only a few US carriers are operating to Africa.

AFRAA called upon the EU to emulate the good example of the United States rather than issue a "blacklist" which has not proved to be helpful in solving the problem.