ANKARA - Europe was divided Tuesday over a four-country aviation ban on Turkish budget airline Onur Air as Turkish, German and Dutch aviation authorities tried to resolve the row that has affected nearly 40,000 passengers.
In a decision that shocked Turkey, The Netherlands on Thursday suspended flights by the privately owned Turkish airline for a month because of alleged "serious safety deficiencies".
Germany, France and Switzerland followed suit, but Denmark and Belgium said they saw no grounds to ban the airline.
As the debate raged, the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said Tuesday it would hold a meeting with member states to tackle the problem.
"We will convene member states, together with a national expert committee on aviation, for a first exchange of views," Stefaan De Rynck, spokesman for EU transport commissioner Jacques Barrot, said in Brussels on Tuesday.
Istanbul-based Onur Air criticized the bans as bids to snatch its share of the European market and said they would affect tens of thousands of passengers.
The bans have affected "nearly 40,000 passengers so far," Onur Air spokesman Yasin Zengin told AFP.
The bans hit the company just at the start of the holiday season in Turkey, a favorite destination for millions of European tourists.
The Netherlands, Germany and France are also home to sizeable communities of Turkish immigrant workers.
Onur Air demanded that the Dutch aviation authorities revoke the ban by 1000 GMT Tuesday or face legal action, but another Onur Air spokesman, Rauf Gerz, said after the deadline had passed that it was unclear whether the company had gone to court.
The threat of legal action came as Turkish and Dutch civil aviation authorities prepared to meet for a second round of talks Wednesday in Ankara after a first session in The Netherlands on Monday.
"The (Dutch) decision is very harsh," Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said. Onur Air "has no deficiency that would require a decision as harsh as suspending its whole fleet."
Turkish and German aviation authorities were also holding talks in the western German town of Brunswick, a German transport ministry source said.
Also Tuesday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder pledged in a joint statement that they would work with Onur Air to tackle the technical problems that led to the ban.
"Turkish and German authorities are working in close cooperation with Onur Air in order to resolve the technical problems as soon as possible," said a joint statement issued after talks in Warsaw in the sidelines of a Council of Europe summit.
Contrary to its European neighbours, Denmark said Tuesday that it would continue to allow Onur Air flights.
Danish authorities have found "no anomalies" with Onur Air and see no reason to ban the airline, Thorbjoern Ancker, the spokesman for the Danish civil aviaton authority, Statens Luftfartsvaesen, told AFP Tuesday.
Danish inspectors checked an Onur Air plane at the Copenhagen airport on Saturday, Ancker said, adding: "There is nothing to say after this technical inspection, according to our chief of inspection operations. The plane was new and the crew competent."
Belgium announced Sunday that it would continue to allow Onur Air service.
"We have adopted the strictest of attitudes and have checked everything," Belgian Transport Minister Renaat Landuyt said. "Up to now, we have no information that would warrant ordering a complete ban."
05/17/2005 16:15 GMT