Word: yemenia
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...Cheery in-flight magazine of Yemenia, the national airline of Yemen, still runs articles encouraging adventurous tourists to visit the coffee-growing region in the country's north, its terraced hilltop villages a vision of Old Arabia, and the fabled eastern valleys that were once home to the Queen of Sheba. But anyone trying to get off the beaten track in Yemen these days may find a bit too much adventure. About two-thirds of the country is out of government control and in the hands of either separatist groups or local tribes, some of which have a habit...
...Potentially more damning, though, is Yemenia's habit of flying newer A330s from Paris to Sanaa and then swapping them for older A310s to fly people continuing on to the impoverished Comoros. Surely that suggests better treatment for its richer clients than those from developing nations, right...
...really, experts say. "There's nothing unusual about Yemenia or any other airline adapting aircraft to both passenger loads and routes being flown," says Paul Hayes, director of the London-based Ascend airline consultancy, adding that swapping planes is a common way for airlines to maximize fuel and cost efficiency. "And while much has been made about the crashed A310 having been banned in France since 2007, you hear no one pointing out that the same A310 has since then been regularly flown between Sanaa and London, where it has passed safety inspections by the British Civil Aviation Association." (Read...
...Ascend's Hayes also points out that external factors may have played into the A310's crash - including a night landing on a poorly-lit strip, and high winds that reportedly caused an aborted landing prior to the accident. Despite that, Bussereau again warned on Friday that "Yemenia has to make big efforts" on safety if it wants to avoid being placed on the E.U.'s blacklist this month. (See pictures of the miracle on the Hudson...
...even if it is, as Tuesday's accident shows, an E.U. ban wouldn't prevent European travelers from flying Yemenia and other small airlines on routes between Sanaa and destinations outside Europe when they are the cheapest or only options. And with the doomed A310 having continued flying between Yemen and London with the approval of British safety officials even after the French ban, blacklisting individual airlines may not be an effective or fair approach...