PULKOVO AIRLINES GETS EU NOTIFICATION ON POSSIBLE FLIGHT BAN

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(Interfax News Agency Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) ST. PETERSBURG. Sept 21 (Interfax) - Russia's Pulkovo Airlines received official notification from the EU on September 18 warning it may possibly be put on the air carrier "black list," banning it from EU airspace, Gennady Boldyrev, acting director general, said at a press conference on Wednesday.



"In the latest year the company received 20 comments from the European Civil Aviation Commission (ECAC) concerning deviations of the technical documentation used in Russian aviation from EU standards," Boldyrev said, adding that other Russian carriers have received similar comments.

Boldyrev noted that the main tests on Pulkovo planes were
carried
out in France. He said not a single one of the company's
flights toEurope was made without an ECAC check.

"We have been invited for a preliminary session of the European commission to be held on October 3, where we will defend our position," Boldyrev said, added that for now Pulkovo had systematized all the EU comments and drawn conclusions.

"On some we have taken measures, and on others we have not and will not," he said.

"Blacklisting Pulkovo will entail the most serious consequences, but I am not yet ready to answer the question if these reproofs might concern State Transport Company Rossiya," Boldyrev added.

"The black list is a list of airlines whose aircraft do not meet safety requirements. Blacklisting the company means a ban on its flights to Europe. The list is made up collectively by EU member nations on the basis of submitted assessments of the companies and further anonymous voting of the experts. The assessment of the state of the company's airplanes is made following the data of technical testing carried out at European airports.

The EU published its first black list in March 2006. Member countries made their own lists before that. The latter never included a Russian company.

Pulkovo Airlines is the largest aviation enterprise in Russia's northwest. It has about 100 flights daily from St. Petersburg to other Russian cities and to more than 80 cities worldwide. Pulkovo currently operates about 40 planes.

Pulkovo is currently merging with Rossiya, a process that is to be concluded in 2006.

Copyright 2006 Interfax News Agency. Source: Financial Times Information Limited.
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