THE HAGUE, 15/04/06 - Transport State Secretary Melanie Schultz is tightening up financial supervision of airline companies. She will only give details later.

Schultz said in a letter to parliament that she wants to adapt the present policy and add "a limited number of supplementary checking requirements for more intensive supervision" of airlines' financial operation. She hopes to give details of the measures to tighten the reins before the summer.

At the request of the Lower House, Schultz has had the way in which operating licences in aviation are currently awarded investigated. This was prompted by the problems around Air Holland airline, which was allegedly financed by cocaine dealers but still went bankrupt.

Currently, there is not a broad check on whether an airline meets financial and economic conditions for an operating licence. An independent consultant said the aim of the present system is not clear due to the marginal checking. The ministry "only has a limited view" on important points, for example the ability to meet obligations, the question of who has the controlling say over a company which is part of a concern, and the integrity of management.