US embassy cable - 05ANKARA2764

UNCLAS ANKARA 002764 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
FAA BRUSSELS FOR KURT EDWARDS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAIR, TU 
SUBJECT:  TURKISH AIRLINE BANNED BY NETHERLANDS 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. 
 
1.  (SBU)  The Netherlands embassy confirmed press 
reports that on May 12 the Netherlands Transportation 
Ministry's civil aviation authority banned Turkish 
charter carrier Onur Air from operating to or from the 
Netherlands for a period of one month.  Germany has 
implemented a similar decision.  The Dutch embassy 
thought Belgium and perhaps other European countries 
would follow suit. 
 
2.  (SBU)  The embassy official said the decision was 
made after a year of discussions between Dutch and 
Turkish civair authorities about technical problems and 
operational violations related to Onur Air.  The 
problems were widespread and not limited to specific 
aircraft.  Despite these discussions (the next meeting 
is scheduled for May 16), the problems had become 
worse, culminating with a recent incident in Antalya in 
which an Onur jet's engine prematurely reversed thrust 
upon landing.  (Also, during a final flight made after 
issuance of the Dutch letter, the landing gear on an 
overloaded Onur plane apparently collapsed on landing 
in the Netherlands.) 
 
3.  (SBU)  The senior air safety official of the 
Turkish Directorate for Civil Aviation (DGCA) 
acknowledged to us separately that a number of 
technical problems had been detected in Onur airplanes, 
but said that these were not sufficient grounds for the 
Netherlands to cancel Onur's operations.  He suggested 
that it would have been more appropriate to ban 
problematic planes (in contrast to the Dutch embassy's 
statement).  The official was angry about what he said 
was lack of prior coordination by the Dutch.  Saying 
that DGCA was ready to share its safety audits with 
other agencies, he alleged that the decision was made 
on commercial and political, rather than safety, 
grounds.  In addition to the Netherlands and Germany, 
he thought Belgium and perhaps Switzerland would impose 
similar bans.  (With 75 flights a week, Onur dominates 
lucrative tourism charter business between Turkey and 
the Netherlands.) 
 
4.  (SBU)  The Dutch ban left 9,000 Dutch tourists 
stranded in Turkey.  The embassy and Onur are now 
looking for ways to repatriate them.  Established in 
1992, Onur Air operates a limited scheduled domestic 
service out of Istanbul, but its main business is 
tourism charter flights to and from Europe.  Including 
the 75 flights to the Netherlands, Onur operates 300 
charter flights to Europe per week; German and 
Switzerland are the other main markets.  Ten Tour, a 
Turkish tour operator, has been the sole shareholder 
since 1996.  Onur Air is currently providing flight 
training and technical consultancy to other airline 
companies for Airbus A-320 and A321 airplanes. 
According to Onur's website, Airbus Industrie awarded 
Onur a "Technical Dispatch Reliability Certificate" in 
1992 and an "Operational and Technical Reliability 
Certificate" in 1994.  Onur Air was also the first 
Turkish airline to obtain the Joint Aviation 
Authority's (JAA) JAR 145 certificate for maintenance. 
 
Aircraft     Number    Seating Capacity 
--------    -------   ----------------- 
A-320          2         174x2= 348 
A-321          8         220x8=1760 
A-300          5         316x5=1580 
A300-600       4         316x4=1260 
MD-88          5         172x5= 860 
--------------------------------------- 
TOTAL          24        5808 
 
EDELMAN