These 128 Airlines Are Banned In Europe … Here’s Why

If you’ve ever been a little nervous before getting on a commercial flight, you might have heard the common adage that air travel is much safer than driving.

But that doesn’t mean that every airline has the same high standards of safety.

In fact, 128 have been banned in the European Union, and the reasons fall into three categories.

Country of origin

For a whopping 101 of those banned airlines, the problem lies in the respective nations where they’re headquartered. The International Civil Aviation Authority requires that nations be able to provide a host of assurances, from technical personnel to pilot licensing, to legislation to deal with safety concerns. And if a nation isn’t able to meet those demands, all of its carriers can be banned.

Russia

One country is in a category of its own. All 22 of Russia’s carriers were banned from European Union skies after it refused to return about 500 aircraft that had been under lease to their respective nations. This was not only a pretty rude thing to do, but it led to concerns that Russia wouldn’t be able to provide sufficiently reliable certification to meet international standards.

Actual safety issues

The remaining five airlines on the banned list have a record that is so troubling they’ve been kicked out of EU skies even though other carriers in their nations of origin area allowed. They include:

• Aseman Airlines (Iran) for “unaddressed safety deficiencies”
• Avior Airlines (Venezuela) after a 2017 emergency landing when passengers said the smelled smoke and saw fire
• Blue Wing (Suriname), which had three plane crashes in the span of just over two years
• Air Zimbabwe had engine failures, malfunctions, and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt
• Iraqi Airways had several pilot-related issues, including a mid-flight fistfight in 2018.

Chris Agee November 23rd, 2023

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