Air Transport

Angolan flag-carrier TAAG will only be allowed to use its three Boeing 777-200ER aircraft on services to Europe following today's revision of the European Union's airline blacklist.

The carrier was blacklisted in June 2007 and this decision was followed with a blanket ban on all Angolan airlines five months later.

In its update to the blacklist the European Commission says TAAG can operate only to Portugal using the three General Electric GE90-powered 777s.

The partial reprieve confirms indications earlier this month that the Commission was satisfied with progress on safety oversight and a commitment by Portuguese authorities to assist and monitor TAAG operations.

Kazakh carrier Air Astana has avoided a blanket ban newly imposed on all other airlines in the country, three months after the Commission warned that "disquieting results" had emerged during ramp inspection of several Kazakh operators.

The Commission nevertheless describes Air Astana's operations as "frozen" under "strict restrictions" - although it has yet to clarify this terminology, because it also lists all 21 of the carrier's aircraft, a mix of Boeing, Airbus and Fokker types, as being approved.

All carriers from Zambia have also been blacklisted, among them the relatively young Zambezi Airlines which started operations a year ago and last month stated that it had expanded with a pair of Boeing 737-500s leased from GECAS.

Aside from carriers from the 12 states subject to a blanket ban, the blacklist still features nine individual airlines banned in their own right.