Transport Ministry wants Kazakhstan airlines out of EU blacklist by year end

Kazakhstan Transport and Communications Ministry is planning to remove all Kazakhstan airlines from the EU blacklist by the end of the year, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Vice-Minister Azat Bekturov. “Our current plan is to get off the blacklist by the year end. The blacklist is just a stage. What's most important for us is to comply with ICAO requirements and successfully pass the audit,” Bekturov said on the sidelines of the conference on civil aviation safety. “As you know, we are now working with ICAO experts. Mr. Almeida (Luis Fonseca de Almeida, ICAO EUR/NAT Director) is currently here. Of course, he is here for some other reason (not about the blacklist). But we plan to discuss this issue tomorrow at the meeting with Vice-PM. At today's meeting with the minister he noted that Kazakhstan had achieved a serous progress,” Bekturov said. Kazakhstan hopes for “a successful audit”, he stressed. “Our priority objective is to eliminate all the serious drawbacks related to flights safety. If we succeed, we will be able to present this in the EU and the audit will be much more successful than the previous one,” the Vice-Minister said. The European Union earlier published the list of airlines banned from flying over its territory. Almost all the Kazakhstan airlines were on that blacklist. By Altynai Zhumzhumina