Home » Aviation: Brussels rejects attempt by Sierra Leone Civil Aviation to inspect Aircraft, threatens to stop flights.

Aviation: Brussels rejects attempt by Sierra Leone Civil Aviation to inspect Aircraft, threatens to stop flights.

by Atqnews
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Two major European airlines are at loggerheads with the Sierra Leone Civil Aviation Authority (SLCAA) over safety inspection.

Brussels Airlines and Air France are opposed to a request by SLCAA to inspect their flights as part of an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requirement.

Reports cite a senior official of Brussels Airlines saying they were also discouraged by the poor and unreliable transportation system linking the airport to Freetown, which caused difficulties for their passengers.

The official said if Freetown failed to meet its demands, it would have no option but to cease operation.

“I am not here to tell the government of Sierra Leone what to do on these concerns that I have raised, because the government knows better. But if the government fails to address these issues, we have no alternative but to stop our operations, and Air France might also stop,” Mr Herman Carpentier, the Vice-President of Aeropolitical, Government and International Relations, was quoted by the Sierra Leone media.

The two airlines are among about seven, all of them foreign, which link Sierra Leone to the outside world. Brussels Airlines in particular occupies a space place in Sierra Leone for being the only European carrier that remained in the country during the Ebola epidemic.

ONLY ONE
Brussels Airlines was presently the only one that flies directly to a European city from Freetown.

According to sources, SLCAA had in April requested Brussels Airlines to facilitate transportation for two of its staff to travel to Belgium, at the expense of the airlines, to conduct the inspection. Air tickets and accommodation for the two officials were to cost the airlines some $5,000 (Le33m).

The move was opposed by both the airline and the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority, which indicted so to the Sierra Leoneans in writing, according to official report.
The Sierra Leone authorities, in response, refused to approve the winter flight schedule of the airlines.

Winter is often a busy period for airlines, especially those which fly between European capitals and Freetown.

At a meeting with officials of Sierra Leone’s diplomatic mission in Belgium earlier this week, Brussels Airlines officials demanded the reversal of the action, failure which they would pull out.

Source: nation.co.ke

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