The President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, has directed the Afghan Civil Aviation Authority (ACAA) to resolve all outstanding issues currently barring the country's carriers from serving the European Union (EU).

The EU banned all Afghan airlines from flying into European airspace in 2010 because of the country’s failure to implement proper safety oversight procedures.

As such, the ACAA has continuously engaged the bloc in a bid to lift the embargo which ACAA director general, Mahmoud Shah Habibi, is now confident will be lifted shortly.

“Two months ago, I went to Europe and the Europeans are satisfied to take us off the list. We almost have finalized the work in this regard and now it is time for airlines to make themselves ready,” he was quoted by the Tolo news agency.

The EU declined to respond to a ch-aviation request for comment.

Given the sizeable Afghan diaspora abroad, aviation plays a significant role in Ghani's economic plan. As such, during the meeting, he directed the ACAA to focus on raising capacity into/out of Afghanistan and improving the standards and safety of flights.