Ireland South MEP and member of the EU Transport committee Deirdre Clune has called on the European Commission to organise an International Aviation safety conference to discuss the fact that over 300 airlines are not deemed fit to fly in European airspace,

The EU Commission has a blacklist of banned airlines which includes 310 airlines from 21 countries. If we do not consider them safe for Europeans then we should be doing more to raise awareness about why they are not safe. We need to work with these 21 countries to raise safety standards in these airlines to ensure that those passengers that do travel with them are not put at unnecessary risk.

We also need to ensure that any Irish people and other Europeans who may inadvertently travel on one of these airlines whilst on a trip abroad, should know that they are banned from flying in Europe.

Most of the banned airlines come from African and Asian countries but a number of national carriers are included on the list such as Nepal airlines, Air Kyrgyzstan and Sudan Airways.