The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has downgraded the safety status of Venezuela, assigning it a Category 2 rating under the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program. The rating shift comes after it was determined that Venezuela’s Civil Aviation Authority is not adequately complying with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety standards about regulating and supervising local airlines. As a result, Venezuelan airlines are banned from adding flights to the United States. Flights between both countries were prohibited on 1 May by the US Department of Transportation and Homeland Security due to political unrest in the South American country. In 2017, European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which assesses the safety of airlines individually, prohibited Avior Airlines from operating flights to the EU. The airline remains on the blacklist.

Source: Cirium

Turkish carrier AtlasGlobal is preparing to restore services, after re-opening its reservations system after nearly a month-long suspension. AtlasGlobal temporarily halted services on 26 November after admitting to financial difficulties. But it states that the booking engine has been re-opened and that it will restore flights from the morning of 21 December. Tickets for flights during the period of suspension were “put on hold”, says the carrier, and it is inviting passengers to contact the airline or travel agencies to make changes. AtlasGlobal has not indicated the reason for its ability to resume services. It has not disclosed whether, or from what source, it has received any financial assistance.

Source: Ciriium

A Qantas Airbus A330-200 returned to Sydney shortly after it took off, after one of the three hydraulic systems on board suffered a leak. The airline says in a statement that it is now cooperating with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) in investigations into the incident, which left at least two passengers injured. It is also in communication with Airbus about the incident, and will launch its own investigations. The aircraft, registered VH-EBC, was bound for Perth from Sydney, operating flight QF575.Qantas says the flight crew noticed an alert for the hydraulic system 20 minutes after take-off and elected to return to Sydney. It stressed that “no emergency was declared”. “Once the aircraft was back on the gate there were reports of a thick haze in the cabin, likely caused by hydraulic fluid entering the air conditioning unit,” says the Oneworld carrier, adding that there was no fire, even as some passengers may have thought it to be smoke. Passengers were evacuated from emergency slides and via aerobridge into the the airport terminal. Of the 221 passengers and 12 crew members on board, Qantas says two passengers were taken to hospital “for injuries sustained from using the slides”. A third was also taken to hospital “as a precaution”. Media reports from Australia state some passengers noticing a burning smell from the aircraft, and that it took a while for the aircraft to be parked at an airport gate.

Source: Cirium