EU lifts safety ban on Pakistan and Surinam airlines

Two airlines banned from the EU over safety fears have been reinstated.

Pakistan International Airlines and Surinam’s Blue Wing airlines were allowed to resume flights after meeting European safety and maintenance standards.

EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said the airlines had taken “rapid and sound corrective action to comply with safety standards.”

The EU-wide blacklist was created last year as part of a broader effort to improve passenger safety and it now contains over 150 airlines.

Most on the list are from Africa’s poorest nations, a vast majority of them from Congo. They can be removed only after meeting international airline safety standards and passing inspection from European experts.

Other airlines that remain on the EU blacklist include TAAG Angola Airlines, Iran’s Mahan Air and Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines. There are also blanket bans on all airlines from Indonesia, Equatorial Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and Congo.

PIA was added to the list in March after the EU barred most of its planes due to safety concerns. Blue Wing was added in June 2006, also because it did not meet European safety standards.

Under the restrictions, the EU allowed in only PIA’s seven Boeing 777s due to worries about the age and maintenance of its other long-haul aircraft.

That forced the airline to cut the number of weekly flights to Europe and the United States, but it promised in to upgrade its fleet to address EU concerns.

PIA was considered one of the best airlines in the developing world in the 1960s and 1970s. Critics blame the slide in quality and maintenance standards on government interference in the airline’s operations.