Kam Air on Monday announced it has been given the go-ahead by the Afghan Civil Aviation Authority (ACAA) to fly to Europe and will start flights as soon as the European Union lifts its ban on local airlines.

Following a rigorous nine-month assessment process, the ACAA renewed Kam Air’s license and approved its application to fly to Europe.

According to Kam Air officials, Afghanistan now just needs the European Union’s civil aviation authority to remove Afghanistan airlines from its blacklist.

Kam Air officials said as soon as this has been done, they will start flights to Europe.

The ACAA said they were now working on getting Afghanistan removed from the EU’s flight blacklist.

“Our success in the assessment process has enabled us to have the right to fly to Europe and in the near future we will start the flights ,” Kam Air deputy head, Farid Paikar said.

Kam Air bought an Airbus A340 last month which can carry over 300 passengers and has a flight range of up to 16,000kms. Kam Air officials said this will enable it to fly to Europe.

The Afghan aviation sector was blacklisted by the EU six years ago in light of repeated instances of mismanagement and irregularities – which led to Afghan airlines being banned from flying to 27 European countries. 

The Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) meanwhile urged government to assist in enabling Afghan airlines to fly to Europe.

“Afghan flights to Europe will pave the way for more investment in Afghanistan and it will benefit our trade sector,” ACCI spokesman Seyam Pesarlay said.