AFRICAN airlines have borne the brunt of a banning order by the European Commission, which has barred 93 carriers from European airspace for safety reasons.

The order, published yesterday by Jacques Barrot, the European Transport Commissioner, covers all 50 airlines certified by the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The ban also includes Ariana Afghan, the flag carrier of Afghanistan, and Phuket Airlines, the Thai carrier, which was banned from the UK last year after British tourists stopped an aircraft from leaving a Gulf airport when they spotted fuel leaking from its wings. The order also targets “flags of convenience”. The aviation authorities of Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Swaziland fail to make the grade and a total of 38 carriers from the four African countries are included in the ban.

M Barrot said that Europe now had a coherent approach to banning airlines. “This blacklist will keep dubious airlines out of Europe. It will also make sure that all airlines operating in Europe’s sky meet the highest safety standards,” he said.

Most of the airlines that figure on the Commission’s list do not currently fly to Europe and are not used by European tourists. “We are trying to pre-empt problems that might arise,” the commissioner said.

Each airline and the relevant national civil aviation authority was given the chance to defend itself in writing and in presentations to the Commission.

Pressure mounted for the ban after a series of fatal accidents involving European holiday travellers, notably in January 2004 of a Boeing 737 belonging to the Egyptian charter carrier, Flash Airlines, which crashed in the Red Sea, killing 148 French tourists.

A decision to ban an airline is based on safety checks carried out in European airports, including evidence of poorly maintained, antiquated or obsolete aircraft, and the failure by a national civil aviation authority to oversees airlines properly. The Commission also banned specific aircraft flown by four airlines.

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