Turkmenistan Airlines ban strands hundreds in Britain

Hundreds of passengers were left stranded in Britain Tuesday after European aviation authorities suspended Turkmenistan Airlines over safety concerns. The isolated central Asian republic's flag carrier provides services from London and Birmingham to the Indian city of Amritsar which is popular with Britain's Punjabi community. Britain's Civil Aviation Authority cited a notice from its European counterpart announcing the suspension of flights on Monday. "The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has suspended Turkmenistan Airlines flights to and from the EU pending confirmation that it meets international air safety standards," the UK Foreign Office said. The airline itself provided no information on its website. The phone number it listed was not in service and no one replied to emails. The website still listed all of its European destinations but was not taking further bookings from Paris or Frankfurt. The airline also links Paris and Frankfurt with popular Asian destinations such as New Delhi and Bangkok via the Turkmen capital Ashgabat. It was still taking bookings from Moscow and Saint Petersburg to Ashgabat and Bangkok. The carrier says on its website that it flies around 3,000 passengers a day. It was not immediately clear what prompted the suspension or when flights might resume.<br/>