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How Equatorial Congo Airlines Flew Around The E.U. Aviation Blacklist

How Equatorial Congo Airlines Flew Around The E.U. Aviation Blacklist

Equatorial Congo Airlines is on a 26-page list of airlines — mostly African –that are banned from flying into airports in the European Union, but ECAir found ways to get around the blacklist, according to a report in eTurbonews.

In 2006, the European Union banned 92 airlines — the vast majority from African countries — saying they were unsafe according to international standards. They were not permitted to land at European airports.

The E.U. created the blacklist in response to fatal airline crashes in Egypt, Italy and Greece in 2004 and 2005, according to InfoPlease. By 2010, the list had grown to more than 278 airlines and has since been updated.

Airlines from at least 16 African countries are banned from landing in E.U. airports, according to the European Commission’s Mobility & Transport website. These include: Madagascar, DRC, Ghana, Gabon, Cormoros, Angola, Zambia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, São Tomé and Príncipe, Mozambique, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Djibouti, Benin, Angola,

Equatorial Congo Airlines, with headquarters in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, holds the presidency for the African Airline Association for 2014-2015.

It will play host the organization’s 47th annual general assembly Nov. 8-10. The airline was in Paris at one of France’s key trade shows, eTurboNews reports.

ECAir has been flying to Paris since 2012, beating E.U. blacklists by flying in on foreign-registered and foreign-maintained Boeing 757s — the U.S.-based manufacturer’s largest single-aisle passenger aircraft — and Boeing 767s, long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliners.

Paris and Dubai are among ECAir’s key destinations. Trade and travel between Congo Brazzaville and former colonial power France is said to be thriving, according to eTurboNews.

Recently the airline launched flights to Beirut to cater to a large number of Lebanese investors and residents, bringing Equatorial Congo Airlines’ destinations to a total of 12. As of March, 2015, these include Cotonou, Benin; Douala, Cameroon; Dubai, U.A.E.; Libreville, Gabon; Oyo and Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo; Bamako, Mali; and Dakar, Senegal.

More destinations are in the pipeline, eTurboNews reports, including Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Yaoundé, Cameroon; Luanda, Angola; Bangui, CAR; and N’Djamena, Chad.