The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) launches new inspections of Bulgaria's civil aviation after last checks showed "grave deficiencies" in safety standards. File photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) launches Tuesday new inspections of Bulgaria's civil aviation.
The experts will check the capacity of aviation authorities and inspect the way certificates are issued to local airlines.
After the last checks carried out in May, EASA argued that there are substantial lapses in the area of aviation safety.
Bulgaria then declared its firm engagement in improving safety standards in accordance to the rules of the European Union and in the wake of the review authorities stripped of licence four local cargo airlines.
Air Sofia, Bright Aviation Services, Skorpion Air and Vega Airlines, which lost rights to service flights, were already blacklisted for flying in EU airspace in February as a precautionary measure over "grave deficiencies" in safety procedures.
The safeguard clause excluded Bulgarian air carriers from the benefit of being considered a "Community carrier".
As a EU member state Bulgaria is a subject to regular checks of the EASA, which provides certificates to companies for operation in the bloc's air space and is responsible for introducing common safety and environmental standards at European level.
The EU's air space includes also Switzerland, Iceland and Norway, regardless they are not part of the bloc.