Three airlines blacklisted by Belgium because of safety concerns will still be allowed to fly to neighbouring Netherlands without restrictions, the Transport Ministry said on Tuesday.
Air Memphis of Egypt, Cargo Freighters of Rwanda and Air Limited of Ghana are authorised to land in The Netherlands but will be under increased surveillance, said ministry spokesperson Willard Elisson.
”We didn’t find any reason to ban these carriers,” Elisson said.
”They’re not frequent flyers in The Netherlands. They come three or four times a year and every time they land at a Dutch airport we send our own people to inspect them.”
The ministry said it will ask Belgium why it banned the three airlines.
Altogether, Belgium blacklisted nine carriers from its airspace on Monday, and France published a similar blacklist of five airlines, none of which flies to The Netherlands. The ban is an attempt to allay public fears about flying after a recent series of deadly crashes.
The Dutch have spoken in favour of an European Union-wide blacklist, rather than letting each member country act individually to ban airlines.
Starting on September 8, EU member countries will meet in Brussels, Belgium, to work on harmonising rules to ban or suspend a company’s flights. – Sapa-AP