Kinnock calls for twin-track safety strategy

Date: 13/06/1996

By Michael Mann

TRANSPORT Commissioner Neil Kinnock will present Union transport ministers with plans for a 'carrot and stick' approach to help non-EU airlines improve their safety record next week.

Enviously eyeing the wide-ranging system in place in the US, the Commission will propose a blueprint for assessing levels of safety attained by foreign airlines - but will stop short of establishing a 'blacklist' of countries to be banned from landing aircraft at airports in the Union.

In addition to a step-by-step assessment procedure to be followed in cases of suspected safety shortcomings, Kinnock will also suggest technical and financial measures to help overseas carriers remedy their problems. Failure to do so could lead to sanctions.

In a draft paper discussed by the high-level group on aviation safety earlier this month, Kinnock proposed extending the maritime sector's port state control system to aviation in the form of a “state of airport control system”. This would allow checks to be made on the airworthiness of aircraft and the adequacy of third countries' safety procedures.

Aware of member states' sensitivities about abdicating responsibility in the transport sector, Kinnock's officials are stressing the Commission's role would be to coordinate its work with that of EU governments and the Joint Aviation Authority (JAA).

Any new organisation “would be separate from the Commission, so we could not be accused of being bureaucratic”, stresses Kinnock's chief adviser Philip Lowe.

The Commission is also deliberating on whether to propose the introduction of “foreign air carrier certificates” or amend the 1990 directive on package travel to oblige third country airlines to accept inspections of their operations.

To strengthen the approach still further, the Commission is considering encouraging other international players to bolster existing dispute resolution procedures falling under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, or to include standard safety articles in bilateral air service agreements.

The new measures would accompany the consultation document on the establishment of a “European Aviation Safety Authority” released late last year. A heated debate is also raging within the EU over flight duty limitations for airline staff.

The new initiative comes as the Union is considering ways of establishing a common aviation area with the applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and as the liberalisation of Europe's skies encourages a number of low-price no-frills carriers to enter the market.

With airline safety suddenly back at the top of the EU's transport agenda following the recent crashes in Miami and the Dominican Republic, Kinnock hopes to receive the green light from ministers at their meeting on 17-18 June to finalise firm proposals before August.

But a spokesman for the Association of European Airlines (AEA) expressed doubts about whether the system would be workable on an EU-wide basis, unless the role of the JAA was strengthened considerably. He stressed that the US Federal Aviation Administration had much wider-ranging powers.

“We think such a system would fall apart pretty quickly, because one country would soon see the economic benefits of allowing in airlines that had been barred from other member states,” he said, adding: “We think this is just a knee-jerk reaction to the recent crashes in Miami and the Dominican Republic.”

According to AEA, the US practice of placing countries on a blacklist discriminates against carriers from those countries which maintain much higher standards than national norms.

In any case, the US system only targets those countries on which a ban would present no political problems.

Commission officials also confess privately to frustration that such issues only move to

the top of the policy agenda following major disasters. They accept that an EU system could not be as far-reaching as that in the US, “because member states do not want to go as far as an FAA in Europe”.

Although Kinnock stresses that the European region has one-third of the world's air traffic and only a tenth of all accidents, he is also keen to ensure the strictest standards for Union carriers.

His initiative will look at ways of ensuring the uniform implementation of safety measures throughout the member states to guarantee that similar standards are applied to leased aircraft.

It will also examine ways of improving incident reporting facilities and the quick dissemination of information.