Does Yemenia Airlines (or backers) have Deeper Pockets?

After months of being under the public eye following the loss of an Airbus A310 in the Comoros, Yemenia Airlines has still not been formally blacklisted. The plane was inspected in 2007 by the French Direction Générale de l’Aviation Civile, and found to have a number of faults. It was never re-inspected because the operators of that plane stopped flying within French airspace. (They flew up to French airspace, unloaded their passengers, took on new passengers and flew back.) The faults that failed French standards continued to be inflicted on non-French airspace.

There are 15 countries forbidden from conducting European Union operations.

Yemenia Airlines is looking for a third party to adjudicate in the Comoros accident investigation, citing “harassment” by French government officials has followed the crash, which is being handled by France’s BEA investigation agency. While simultaneously complaining about BEA harassment , Yemenia obligated itself for $700 million for 10 A320s for delivery from late 2011.

Nothing like backroom deals to keep the world going round.