Documents related to the air safety improvements that Nepal has made will be sent to the European Commission (EC) so that Nepali airlines can be removed from its blacklist.

According to officials of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan), they have sent the documents to the Tourism Ministry which will forward them to the EC through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

They said that they had updated the information they had sent to the International Civil Aviation Organization (Icao) two months ago. 

Caan had formally invited Icao’s mission to carry out an audit of the corrective measures it has taken to address the significant safety concerns (SSC) relating to operations and other aspects.

Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat had requested EC President Jean-Claude Juncker to remove Nepali airlines from its air safety list during their meeting in Brussels recently, stating that Nepal had made significant progress in aviation safety. 

President Juncker said they would look into the matter positively after studying facts provided by the government of Nepal.

“So the documents related to the progress made by Nepal in air safety improvement are being sent to the EC,” Caan officials said. 

The EC imposed a blanket ban on all airlines from Nepal from flying into the 28-nation bloc in December 2013.

Meanwhile, Caan officials said Icao had not yet informed them when the audit would be conducted. “We had requested a date in March for the audit, but it doesn’t seem possible as we have not heard from Icao,” they said. “However, we are optimistic that it will be sending the audit mission soon.” 

Unsatisfied with Nepal’s progress, the UN aviation watchdog had given the SSC tag to Nepal’s aviation sector in its audit report. 

It had given a red flag on ‘operations’, among the eight critical elements of safety oversight, due to the large number of aircraft accidents and incidents between 2009 and 2012 when there were at least two passenger aircraft crashing annually. 

Caan said that it had addressed almost all the deficiencies pointed out by the Icao audit in 2013, and expressed confidence that Nepal would be removed from the safety list. 

In July 2013, an Icao mission visited Nepal to validate the corrective measures taken by the country to address the deficiencies pointed out by the global aviation watchdog in 2009. 

The mission carried out an on-site audit from July 10-16. The report was submitted in August 2013.