Airline blacklists derided in Europe

Airline blacklists issued this week by France, Belgium and Switzerland do not go far enough to address safety concerns after a string of deadly air crashes, European media and analysts said yesterday.

France and Belgium published the names of 14 companies banned from using their airports or airspace due to concerns over their safety or aircraft maintenance record, while the Swiss list contained just two.

But commentators said the companies covered by this "name and shame" campaign fell far short of the total number whose operations gave rise to concern.

International airline safety has become a particularly sensitive issue following four fatal crashes in August alone in which more than 330 people died. The blacklist initiative was originally put forward by the European Union executive Commission in February.

"The Swiss blacklist is a farce. One company doesn't have any planes any more and the other transports cargo," Pierre Condom, editorial director of aerospace magazine Interavia, told Swiss TV.

The Swiss federal office for civil aviation (BAZL) named the two banned airlines as Egypt's Flash Airlines and Armenia's Air Van Airlines.

But Flash Airlines had practically ceased business since one of its Boeing 737s crashed into the Red Sea, killing 147 people, mostly French tourists, in January 2004, Condom said. The daily Tribune de Geneve, in an editorial headlined Airline Security: The Absurdity of the Swiss Blacklist, charged yesterday that Swiss authorities considered many other airlines as less than 100 percent reliable.

"The BAZL refuses to divulge names of these flying cemeteries under the pretext that only a few aircraft had some problems," the paper said. French media comment has been equally sceptical. "The blacklist of companies does not resolve everything," declared the French daily Le Figaro. BAZL spokesman Mireille Fleury declined comment on the criticism, but told Reuters: "This list is a first step."

"Just because there is a problem with one plane does not mean a company's whole fleet has problems. When a whole company is banned from landing, it means there is a recurring security problem," she said.