Airlines banned in EU are flying in UAE

Aviation official says UAE not bound by EU diktats on carrier services

Dubai: Airlines blacklisted by the EU over safety concerns are flying in the UAE. A simple web search shows that Ariana Afghan Airlines, banned by the EU since 2006, flies to Dubai seven times a week. Sudan Airways, banned by the EU since 2010, flies to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah for a total of seven times a week.

A spokesperson for the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) would not comment on the presence of banned airlines in UAE airspace but pointed out that the UAE does not share the same list as the EU. While the GCAA has banned 61 aircraft operators, including 35 charter operators, the EU blacklist can be used by other countries as a guideline on aviation safety policies and as an indicator of unsafe airlines.

The EU ban imposed includes “all air carriers certified by the authorities with responsibility for regulatory oversight of” Afghanistan and Sudan.

Ernest Arvai, a US-based aviation consultant and CEO of The Arvai Group, toldGulf News that the presence of EU-banned airlines in the UAE provides an opportunity rather than tainting the country’s image. “The key is helping those countries in difficulty take steps to correct their problems,” he said.

Crash

In 1998 an Ariana Afghan Airlines Kabul-bound flight from Sharjah crashed into the mountains near Kabul International amid poor visibility killing all on board. In 2009 a leased aircraft used by Sudan Airways for freighter services crashed into the desert soon after take off from Sharjah International, killing all on board. The GCAA temporarily banned Azza Transport, the company who had leased the aircraft to Sudan Airways, immediately after the accident.

Several attempts by Gulf News to call Ariana Afghan and Sudan Airways UAE offices were unanswered.

Sultan Muhammad Al Zara, director of foreign operators at GCAA, told Gulf Newsin an emailed statement that the decision to ban foreign state or foreign operators is made due to “serious safety deficiencies identified by ramp inspections performed under the safety assessment of foreign aircraft programme [SAFA] and/or to the substantiated accident related information or serious incident indicating safety deficiencies.”

Al Zara said that in “some cases the ban decision was due to lacking of ability and/or willingness of operator/state to address the identified the safety deficiencies”.

Airline alliances

Two other carriers, Air Astana from Kazakhstan and Iran Air, are “subject to operational restrictions within the European Union” but operate services to the UAE. The Air Astana and Abu Dhabi Airport website showed multiple flights arriving and departing Abu Dhabi this week.

Arvai said that while Air Astana is under EU restrictions all three major airline alliances, Star, OneWorld and SkyTeam have approached the carrier. “Obviously, the leading airlines in the world disagree [with the restrictions],” he said.

A staffer at Iran Air’s Dubai office said the airline did not face any restrictions when flying in the UAE. In October 2013 the GCAA banned a cargo operator from flying in the UAE. In November 2013 it lifted a ban on a separate cargo operator who had “corrected the findings raised by the GCAA,” Al Zara stated.

Air NZ second safest airline

Air New Zealand has been rated the world's second safest airline to fly with by a leading air travel website.

Qantas is still the safest of 448 airlines rated by Airlineratings.com, having never had a fatality in the jet era.

Air New Zealand is next on the list of the airlines offering the greatest peace of mind when flying.

The air travel site says 2013 was the safest for flying since 1945, with only 269 deaths from 29 accidents.

The results are well below the 10-year average of 32 accidents and 719 fatalities, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

The worst accident of the year killed 44 passengers and six crew abroad a Tatarstan Boeing 737-500 from Moscow to Kazan, which exploded in flames on landing.

The most miraculous escape was for the 304 passengers and crew that walked away from the spectacular crash of the Asiana Boeing 777 at San Francisco International Airport in July.

Only three passengers died, when the plane hit the runway sea wall and flipped around.

AirlineRatings.com safety rating takes into consideration the EU black list, which bans all airlines - with a few exceptions - from 21 countries, including Angola, Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Indonesia (with the exception of 5 airlines), Kyrgyzstan, Mozambique, Nepal, Philippines (with the exception of one airline), Sudan, Swaziland and Zambia.

The 10 safest airlines according to AirlineRatings.com:

• Qantas

• Air New Zealand

• Emirates

• Etihad

• Cathay Pacific

• Singapore Airlines

• Virgin Atlantic

• EVA Air

• Korean Air

• Royal Jordanian

The lowest ranked airlines were:

• One Star

• Kam Air

• Scat

• Bluewing Airlines

AirAsia forces to expand airlines in southern India

NEW DELHI | MUMBAI : Indian carriers are making southern India an integral part of their expansion plans, especially international, as the region presents the perfect gateway to short-haul international routes and also to take on AirAsia India which will base its operations in Chennai this year. 

In the winter schedule this year, Chennai and Bangalore had a double-digit growth in the number of daily domestic flights taking off from those two cities. Hyderabad for the first time had more than 100 daily domestic flights from the airport. 

"What has helped increased flights is airlines like AirAsia India stating that they will use Chennai as their base of operations and following such announcements, we have seen other airlines such as IndiGo, Jet Airways and SpiceJet increase daily flights from Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad," said an official at the state-run Airports Authority of India which runs the Chennai airport. 

"The southern grid comprising Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai present a huge potential in terms of best-in-class infrastructure in terms of modernised greenfield airports, traffic potential due to huge corporate presence to both domestic and international airlines. 

The connectivity to the other southern airports like Trivandrum, Coimbatore, Cochin, Calicut and Vizag along with connections to Jaipur, Indore, Lucknow is an emerging opportunity. Apart from the base of IT&ITeS and manufacturing, the south Indian cities also offer good gateways for the tourist circuit in Ootacamund, Coorg, Kerala and Pondicherry, and this supports the airlines to operate profitably where rail or road connectivity would take a higher time to traverse," said Suraj Nair,senior vice-president - strategy & planning, Thomas Cook (India). 

India's southern region has the maximum number of metro airports -- Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad -- apart from several other busy airports such as Cochin, Trichy and Trivandrum. Destinations in Kerala have always been money-spinners as connectors to the Gulf region, because of the labour traffic immigrating to the region. The southern region as a whole serves as an efficient hub for traffic to south Asian regions. 

India's largest low-cost carrier IndiGo has moved to increase its capacity across South India. "IndiGo's expansion in South India has been in line with the originally planned growth," said the airline's spokesperson."We have increased flights across South India with increased frequencies on Bangalore-Delhi-Bangalore, Bangalore-Hyderabad-Bangalore, Chennai-Hyderabad-Chennai, Chennai-Kolkata-Chennai, Hyderabad-Goa-Hyderabad, Kochi-Mumbai-Kochi and other such sectors." 

Out of 64 flights that SpiceJet started last year, a majority has been dedicated to expanding its international network via the south. It added flights to Riyadh, Guangzhou, Sharjah, Muscat, Bangkok, Lucknow, Mysore, Pondicherry, Allahabad, Dharamshala and Khajuraho. 

"We added majorly to Bangkok-Bangalore and other routes such as Madurai-Colombo, Riyadh-Hyderabad and Kochi-Male," said an executive at the airline. Also, in December, SpiceJet signed an interline agreement with Tigerair, according to which the Indian carrier will connect 14 cities to Hyderabad and Tigerair will connect the passengers to Singapore. 

"GoAir operated approximately 1,600 flights more to/from Chennai, Bangalore and Kochi. We doubled our capacity to Kochi and added one additional flight on Mumbai-Bangalore-Mumbai and Delhi-Bangalore-Delhi route," said a spokesman.