The latest evolution of blacklist airlines banned from flying in the European Union always counts 15 countries including Russiabut flights between Italy and Libya will resume, after a decade of being banned from the country.
Updated in early June 2023, the list of airlines “subject to an operating ban or operating restrictions within the European Union, because they do not comply with international safety standards”, still includes 15 countries, starting with Russia, where 21 carriers had been banned from April 2022. The European Commission then explained that this decision reflected “serious security problems due to the forced re-registration by Russia of foreign-owned aircraft, knowingly authorizing their operation without valid certificates of airworthiness. This is contrary to international aviation safety standards.” Are concerned in particular Aeroflot and its subsidiaries Rossiya, Pobeda or Aurora, as well as S7 Airlines, UTair, North Wind, Yakutia Or Rusline among others.
Remember that these Russian companies had already been banned from entering European airspace since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of February 2022.EASA had for its part “decertified” the sukhoi SSJ100 Superjet, in the context of European sanctions targeting the entire Russian air sector.
The “prohibited” countries are as follows: Afghanistan, Angola (with the exception of 2 companies including TAAG), Armenia, Congo (Brazzaville), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Libya, Nepal, Russia therefore, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone and Sudan, “due to inadequate safety oversight by the aeronautical authorities of these States”.
It will be noted that the Libyawhich has been on this blacklist since 2014, could soon benefit from air links with italy. In any case, according to the head of the local government supported by the UN, the interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al Dbeiba, who affirms on social networks that ” the Italian government has informed us of its decision to lift the air embargo imposed on Libyan civil aviation for 10 years (…). Air travel between Libya and Italy will resume in September “.
No other official source, either in Italy or at the airlines, has confirmed this announcement (Ryanair mentioned at the end of December 2022 the possibility of adding the country to its network). The Italian Embassy in Tripoli, however, referred to “discussions on the resumption of flights” between the head of the Italian Civil Aviation Authority Pierluigi Di Palma and Libyan officials in Tripoli. A possible removal of some Libyan carriers from the blacklist was not mentioned.
