France Announces Ban on North Korea’s National Airline

France Announces Ban on North Korea’s National Airline. August. 30, 2005 06:50. by Jae-Young Kim redfoot@donga.com.

Agence France Presse (AFP) reported that in an effort to strengthen safety, France’s civil aviation authority has put North Korea’s Air Koryo on its blacklist of airlines prohibited from operating in France, which was released on August 29.

France`s civil aviation authority (DGAC) released a list of airlines banned from operating in French territory and a list of authorized airlines in France on its website (www.dgac.fr), and Air Koryo was included as one of the six airlines from five countries, along with the U.S.’s Saint Thomas Airlines and Thailand’s Phuket Airlines, forbidden from operating in France.

Air Koryo is North Korea’s only international airline, and currently operates routes to Beijing, Shenyang, Vladivostok, and Bangkok. Air Koryo’s planes, IL-62s and TU-154s, are old Soviet models that the airline began operating in the 1970s, and they are known to be very old.

AFP added that Air Koryo has been suspended from operating in France since April of 2001 and that this fact was only made public now.