Air Moldova ends Embraer 120 operations

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has banned Moldovan cargo operators from its airports, effective February 1, due to safety concerns, freight news site The Loadstar reported on January 27 citing a letter by the UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).

“In the interest of aviation safety and in accordance with Article 4 of the Air Service Agreement [...] the UAE GCAA has decided to ban all operations of cargo aircraft from the Republic of Moldova to/from UAE airports, until further notice,” the letter to the authority's Moldovan counterpart (Autoritatea Aeronautica Civila a Republicii Moldova - AAC) declared.

There had been “no significant improvement of safety standards of the cargo operators, or in [the] adoption of long-term measures by [the AAC] since the first safety consultation meeting in 2013,” it added.

The move will affect Aerotrans Cargo and Air Stork, as well as Libya's Global Air Transport and Bangladesh's Bismillah Airlines, which use Aerotrans’ Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) to connect Sharjah with Delhi Int'l, Dhaka, and Ostend, a source told...