The European Commission (EC) has updated the EU Air Safety List, banning all carriers certified in Suriname and Tanzania. According to Brussels, the aviation authorities in Suriname and Tanzania do not ensure sufficient safety oversight.
The new list, updated on June 3, includes 36 companies from Tanzania and nine from Suriname, including the country's flag carrier Surinam Airways. The airline currently maintains a direct service between Paramaribo International and Amsterdam Schiphol, but it is operated with an A340-600 wet-leased from USC (Germany).
Surinam Airways' acting chief executive officer, Steven Gonesh, told ch-aviation that the Paramaribo-Amsterdam service will not be suspended as it is operated by an ACMI provider. The EU Air Safety List affects solely in-house operations and does not ban airlines from wet-leasing capacity from approved carriers to operate their EU services.
However, Gonesh confirmed that the route between Paramaribo and Cayenne in French Guiana will be discontinued. He noted that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) conducted a TCO (Third-Country Operators) re-certification audit in February. "There were a few (minor) findings, of which all corrective action plans are already accepted by EASA and are in the process of finalisation," he said.
The European Union had already blocked Air Tanzania in December 2024 due to safety concerns, but the airline did not operate flights to the EU prior to the flight ban. Other Tanzanian companies on the EU list also do not operate long-haul flights to Europe.
Following the June 3 update, the list now includes 169 airlines, with 142 carriers from 17 countries banned due to concerns with their national oversight systems.
