Unsafe Iraqi Airways banned from using Swedish airspace

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) denied a report on Iraqi state TV yesterday that it had lifted a ban on Iraqi Airways entering European airspace.

Iraqi state TV had earlier cited Iraq’s transport minister Kadhim Al-Hamami saying the agency had removed the airline from a European blacklist.

“As far as EASA is aware, no update of this list has been performed since last December,” a spokesman for the Cologne-based agency said in an email.

There was no one immediately available to comment from the ministry or the television station, which later stopped running the story in its news updates.

The national carrier was banned from flying to Europe in 2015 because it did not meet International Civil Aviation Organization safety standards.

Meanwhile, the Swedish Transportation Administration yesterday banned Iraqi Airways from landing in Sweden.

Sweden said that the decision came because Iraq does not meet EASA safety standards, adding that Stockholm “decided today to stop air traffic between Sweden and Iraq, because of the deteriorating security situation.”