Swiss name more banned airlines
The Federal Office for Civil Aviation (FOCA) has released the names of seven airlines whose planes are currently banned from Swiss airspace for safety reasons.
But the complete list of 21 banned aircraft remains secret.
Wednesday’s announcement came in response to an Italian news agency report naming eleven airlines allegedly banned from Switzerland.
In addition to the Egyptian carrier, Flash, whose passenger jet crashed into the Red Sea earlier this month, the FOCA said it had banned one plane from each of six airlines: GIR Jet of Spain; Silk Way of Azerbaijan; Hemus Air from Bulgaria; JR Executive, a Lebanese-US company; Premium Air Shuttle of Nigeria; and Dniproavia of Ukraine.
But the government refused to release other names on its list, citing a confidentiality clause covering the Europe-wide aircraft inspection programme.
Inspections
Officials stressed that the Swiss ban only had limited significance because it was based on the inspection on a specific day and only related to a single plane, not a company’s entire fleet.
They said they had released the six names because some had already been published by the Swiss media.
The FOCA said it had acted “in order to avoid further rumours and re-establish legal certainty”, adding that it needed to clear up data protection and legal questions before it could consider releasing the full list of 21 aircraft banned from Switzerland.
The announcement comes over a week after the Swiss revealed that an aircraft belonging to Flash Airlines, had been banned from Swiss airspace.
One of Flash Airlines’ planes crashed into the Red Sea on January 3, killing all 148 people on board.
Increasing pressure
The Swiss government has come under increasing pressure to reveal the names of all 21 airlines currently banned from landing in the country.
Consumer and pilot groups have led the call for the names to be published, claiming it is in the interests of the safety of passengers and crew.
The transport ministry said last week it would not release the names, because this might violate data protection laws.
It is also anxious not to break a “gentlemen’s agreement” between members of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) not to disclose details of inspections.
The FOCA said if it broke the agreement, it might not have access to the data shared among members.
However, Britain, a ECAC member, last week released a list of airlines banned from its skies.
swissinfo with agencies
The seven airlines owning aircraft banned by the Swiss are:
GIR Jet (Spain)
Dniproavia (Ukraine)
Premium Air Shuttle (Nigeria)
JR Executive (Lebanon/United States)
Hemus Air (Bulgaria)
Silk Way (Azerbaijan)
Flash Airlines (Egypt)
The seven names were revealed after an Italian news agency published the names of eleven airlines allegedly banned from Switzerland.
FOCA refused to release other names on its list, citing a Europe-wide confidentiality clause.
Consumer and pilot groups have led the call for all of the names to be published, claiming it is in the interests of the safety of passengers and crew.
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