PIA flies off EU banned airline list
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The European Commission on Wednesday lifted all restrictions on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flying in the 27-nation bloc while keeping Indonesian airlines on its list of banned carriers.
Updating its list of carriers banned throughout the European Union, the European Union's executive arm also lifted its ban on Surinam's Blue Wing Airlines.
In March the Commission banned most of the Pakistan airline's planes amid safety fears concerning the aging fleet.
PIA and Blue Wing "have successfully completed the implementation of a corrective action plan following their inclusion in the list," the Commission said in a statement.
"Their oversight authorities have produced evidence that they verified the measures taken by the airlines and that these measures provide for long-lasting sustainable solutions to avoid the same problems recurring in the future," it added.
EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said the latest airline blacklist shows "that when airlines take rapid and sound corrective action to comply with safety standards, they can be withdrawn from the list quickly."
However, all Indonesian airlines, including national flag carrier Garuda, remain on the EU banned list.
All 51 Indonesian airlines were officially banned from flying to the EU in July after European safety experts declared they were unsafe.
The ban came after a series of crashes in the Asian archipelago.
Also remaining on the banned list are all airlines from Equatorial Guinea, the Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with the exception of one airline.
