All foreign airlines wishing to
operate flights to and from
Switzerland require a licence issued
by the Federal Office for Civil
Aviation (FOCA). A licence will be
issued if the airline concerned is
able to provide evidence that it
complies with the applicable
operational and technical
requirements (i.e. the standards of
the International Civil Aviation
Organisation, ICAO), and that the
authorities of the country of origin
carry out effective supervision of
the airline. In other words, the
safety of the airline has to be
assured. In addition, the airline
must possess adequate insurance
cover. The Federal Office for Civil
Aviation normally issues operating
licences to foreign airlines for a
period of five years. If an airline
only carries out occasional flights,
the FOCA will issue a single permit
for each operation.
Inspectors of the FOCA carry out
random checks at Swiss airports in
order to determine whether foreign
airlines comply with the applicable
standards. These inspections take
place within the scope of the
European SAFA (= Safety Assessment
of Foreign Aircraft) programme, but
they do not take the form of
comprehensive tests. Supervisory
activities including in-depth
inspections and audits are the
responsibility of the civil aviation
authorities in the country of origin
of an airline. However, if it has
doubts as to whether an airline
truly meets the applicable standards,
the FOCA may withdraw existing
licences.
Airlines that have been refused
permission to fly to and from EU or
EFTA member* states and apply for
new landing rights in Switzerland
will not receive a licence from the
FOCA. In the case of airlines that
already hold a licence for
Switzerland but have been prohibited
from landing in an EU or EFTA member
state, the FOCA carries out its own
specific inspections. If it should
identify severe shortcomings of
relevance to safety, the FOCA will
withdraw the airline’s licence to
fly to and from Switzerland.
Below is a list of all airlines that
the Federal Office for Civil
Aviation has prohibited from landing
in Switzerland due to systematic
shortcomings of relevance to safety.
The FOCA is only able to inspect
aircraft of airlines that operate
flights both to and from Switzerland,
and in view of the random nature of
SAFA inspections, it is not possible
to check all aircraft that land in
Switzerland. The fact that an
airline is not included in the list
below therefore does not
automatically mean that it meets the
applicable safety standards.
* 25 EU member states plus Norway
and Iceland