The pan-European blacklist now includes more than 150 airlines that are completely banned from flying to Europe, and another four that can only use part of their aircraft fleet for flights there. Civil aviation of some African and Asian countries is excluded from Europe. The ban applies not only to specific companies from these states listed in the blacklist, but also to all others that are unfortunately registered there (or will appear there in the future).
Actually, the announcement of another such "forbidden country" became the main innovation of the fourth version of the blacklist. It includes 51 Indonesian airlines, as well as all other air carriers under the jurisdiction of this island state. Other "newcomers" in this unpleasant company are Angola's TAAG and Ukraine's Volare.
However, some "veterans" of the list have mended their ways and earned relief. The European Commission decided that Pakistan's PIA has increased the number of aircraft meeting safety standards. Now the Pakistanis will be able to use most of their fleet on routes to Europe. The list of penalized Kyrgyz airlines has also been revised. True, in this case it is not about any of them having reformed – the European Commission simply removed from the list companies that have ceased to exist.
In the announcement about the update of the blacklist, the European Commission states that the authorities of three countries – Russia, Bulgaria and Moldova – have independently taken measures against airlines that Europeans had safety concerns about. Russia informed the European Commission that it has completely banned flights to Europe for the airlines "Avialinii Kubani", "Yakutia", "Avialinii 400" and "Kavminvodyavia", and also restricted the use of aircraft fleet of "Gazpromavia", UTair, "KrasAir", "Atlant-Soyuz", "Ural Airlines" and "GTK Rossiya". Bulgaria revoked operating certificates from four cargo airlines, suspended the validity of this document for another one, and banned one helicopter company from working within the EU. Moldova revoked certificates from eight airlines registered in that country.