UAE lifts ban on Yemen's cargo flights

Source : Yemen Post, 11/12/2010
The Untied Arab Emirates has lifted the ban on freight flights from Yemen which was imposed after detecting two mail bombs in Dubai and London onboard planes coming from Yemen in late October.
Head of Yemen Civil Aviation Authority Hamid Farag said on Friday the authority was informed by its UAE counterpart that the ban had been lifted under the recommendations of a UAE team which visited Yemen to inspect airport safety measures.

The team paid visits to Sana'a, Aden, Mukalla and Sayoon Airports and recommended that air safety measures in Yemen are in compliance with international civil aviation standards, he said.
All luggage and passenger security measures at Yemeni airports comply with the ICAO standards, and the UAE ban should no longer exist, the team was quoted as saying in its recommendations.

In late October and early November, the Gulf and other world countries suspended freight flights from Yemen to them after the mail bombs were intercepted before they could reach their destinations in the U.S. Some European countries also suspended cargo and passenger flights.
The packages triggered global scare and alert and reconsideration of air safety measures.

Later, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula AQAP claimed responsibility for the parcels, saying they had been shipped onboard two UPS airliners and addressed to worship places in Chicago.
The group, recently described by the U.S. as more dangerous than the main Al-Qaeda group of Bin Laden, hailed the operation, saying it cost low and sent a message to the West that their interests can be targeted easily.