Malta would accept airline blacklist

Malta would not oppose an EU-wide blacklist banning unsafe airlines from using its airspace or airport if such a move were agreed to by the EU, civil aviation sources said yesterday.

Malta does not have such a blacklist. The idea of drawing one up has been discussed at EU level over the past few months and in view of this Malta did not feel the need to draw one up for its own national use, the sources added.

Following a number of serious air crashes in the past few weeks, some EU member states have stepped up their surveillance of airlines with a bad security reputation.

France and Belgium published new lists of airlines banned from landing at their airports and other countries are considering taking similar action. France's blacklist includes five airlines while Belgium's has nine including a Libyan and an Egyptian airline.

The European Commission has proposed that blacklists of airlines with a poor safety record be made available at airports or travel agents and that travellers must be given information on air carriers by tour operators.

The European Parliament's Transport Committee meeting in Brussels this week is also demanding an EU-wide blacklist. The committee's chairman, Paolo Costa, said these carriers should be named and shamed and he called for zero tolerance.

Mr Costa welcomed the decisions by the Belgian and French governments to publish their own blacklists but held that an EU list would be more effective and would avoid confusion.

He said the blacklist should also cover aircraft chartered from companies in non-EU countries and member states should provide the Commission with a list of carriers banned from their airspace.

Sources said that the discussion over the issue, both at Council and Parliament level, is expected to be concluded by the year's end.