Air Tanzania is among airlines banned from flying within the European Union’s airspace because of safety reasons.
All airlines certified by Tanzania aviation regulatory authority have also been banned, they include Precision Air, Fly Safari Airlink and Tropic helicopters.
Aircraft originating from Sudan, Congo, Libya, Eritrea have also been barred.
The European Commission has updated the European Union (EU) Air Safety List, the list of airlines that are subject to an operating ban or operational restrictions within the European Union, because they do not meet international safety standards.
All air carriers certified in Suriname and Tanzania have been included on the doomed List and can no longer operate in the European Union.
This decision is based on serious safety concerns identified during assessments conducted by European Union aviation safety experts.
They revealed that civil aviation authorities in these countries are unable to ensure compliance with international safety standards for air carriers.
For Suriname and Tanzania, the identified safety shortcomings cover both operational and regulatory areas. A total of 169 airlines are banned from EU skies.
These include a shortage of qualified personnel, ineffective oversight processes in flight operations and airworthiness, and non-compliance with international safety standards by both countries’ civil aviation authorities and certified air carriers.
The EU Air Safety List is based on the unanimous opinion of Member State aviation safety experts, who met in Brussels from 13 to 15 May 2025 under the auspices of the EU Air Safety Committee.
This Committee is chaired by the European Commission with support from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
The European Parliament’s Transport Committee also supports the update. Decisions under the EU Air Safety List are based on international safety standards, and notably the standards decreed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
142 airlines certified in 17 States (Afghanistan, Angola (with the exception of 2 airlines), Armenia, Congo (Brazzaville), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Libya, Nepal, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Suriname, and Tanzania), due to inadequate safety oversight by the aviation authorities from these States;
22 airlines certified in Russia, as well as 5 individual airlines from other States, based on serious safety deficiencies identified: Air Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe), Avior Airlines (Venezuela), Iran Aseman Airlines (Iran), Fly Baghdad (Iraq) and Iraqi Airways (Iraq).
Two additional airlines are subject to operational restrictions and can only fly to the EU with specific aircraft types: Iran Air (Iran) and Air Koryo (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea).
Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tzitzikostas insisted that passenger safety remains their top priority.
However, an airline from the condemned country can skirt around the ban by wet-leasing an aircraft from an airline which is not subject to the operating ban.
The leased aircraft can be branded in the colors of the banned airline.
For example, Air Tanzania can lease an aircraft from Kenya Airways (KQ) then change the colors to those of Air Tanzania.