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The Ministry of Transport has advised that contrary to all rumours, the European Union commission has no plans to blacklist Israeli airlines.  “The Civil Aviation Authority’s plan to reinstate Israel to category 1 has won the support from the Europeans.”

Following a meeting between representatives of the Israel Civil Aviation Authority and the European
Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in Brussels, the Ministry of Transport advised that the members of EASA do not intend blacklisting Israeli airlines and are satisfied with the steps taken to improve flight safety.

Following the downgrading by the FAA of Israel air safety system from category 1, rumours started to circulate in the Israeli media a few weeks ago warning that if flight safety was not improved then the European Community would not only prevent Israeli airlines from landing in their airports, but would also prevent Israeli airlines from entering European airspace.

As a result of these rumours, Giora Rom the head of the Israel Civil Aviation Authority reported that there are no threats of sanctions from European aviations officials.  He advised that Israel is working on its safety issues and is fully cooperating with its European counterparts.  He further added that in talks held last week, EASA expressed their satisfaction with the actions taken by the Israel Civil Aviation Authority.  However EASA stressed the importance of maintaining a high level of aviation safety of Israeli airlines as a condition for maintaining its status in Europe.

Only two months ago Minister of Transportation, Shaul Mofaz, signed a new aviation agreement with his European counterparts, removing nationality restrictions in the bilateral air services agreements between the 27 EU member states and Israel.