MEPs PUSH FOR BLACKLIST OF UNSAFE AIRLINES - LIZ LYNNE

2.42.57pm GMT Wed 16th Nov 2005

Commenting ahead of the European Parliament's vote today to create an EU-wide blacklist of unsafe airlines following a number of fatal crashes this summer Liberal Democrat MEP for the West Midlands, Liz Lynne, said:

"The Helios Airways crash in August, which involved an internal EU flight from Cyprus to Prague, reinforced the need for a co-ordinated approach in order to improve air safety across the EU."

MEPs want airline ticket sellers to inform passengers about the identity of their air carrier, at the time of reservation or at the latest during check-in even for flights outside the EU territory.

"Passengers would have the right to compensation or re-routing if the airline which they were to fly with is included on the community blacklist, or replaced by a blacklisted airline, after they had purchased the ticket."

ENDS

Note to Editors:

Common criteria for blacklisting will be introduced and an EU-wide list will be compiled and published by the European Commission. The pressure for this blacklist started when a 737 owned by the Egyptian airline Flash crashed in January 2004 killing all the passengers on board; all of them French citizens. It emerged after this accident that the airline had been banned from Swiss airports on technical grounds two years earlier. And in May this year, it was discovered that Onur Air, a Turkish carrier, banned from Dutch airspace, was flying Dutch tourists to and from Belgian airports and bussing them over the border. Additional incidents occurred during the summer involving EU operators and/or EU citizens, most notably the Helios Airways flight from Cyprus to Prague with 121 people on board which crashed north of Athens, apparently after a drop in cabin pressure.