A proposal currently under discussion in the European Parliament would empower the European Commission to publish a consolidated list of all air carriers that are banned from EU countries' airspace for safety reasons. The proposal would also give passengers a right to know in advance which airline will be the flight operator.
The draft was published as a reaction to the 3 January 2004 plane crash over the Red Sea, which killed 148 people, mostly of French nationality. It was sent to the Parliament this February. A vote is expected later this year. After the recent crashes in Canada, Italy, Venezuela and Greece, which made August 2005 the worst month in airline safety in three years, a Commission spokesman said: "With all these accidents, we hope this will push things forward a bit."
