The European Parliament is expected to vote this week in favor of creating an EU-wide blacklist of unsafe airlines after pledging zero tolerance for carriers that do not meet international safety standards.
Responding to a string of fatal plane crashes this summer, the EU executive Commission had suggested existing lists of unsafe airlines produced by the 25 member states should be collated into one EU blacklist. But EU lawmakers want the Commission to draw up common inspection criteria according to which member states would decide which airlines to ban from the EU territory.
Euro deputies want airline ticket vendors to bring the blacklist to the attention of customers, both at their premises and via their Web sites.
Under the new rules, passengers would have a right to compensation if the airline which they were to fly is included on the blacklist or replaced by a blacklisted airline after they had bought the ticket.
European governments use different criteria to ban unsafe airlines, meaning planes blacklisted in one country can still land in neighboring EU states.
An EU-wide blacklist has been backed by European air safety officials. The EU member states are expected to agree on a common list by the end of the year, meaning the measures could enter into force in early 2006.
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