DESPITE THE blackest month for air crashes in three years, civil-aviation experts are denying that flying has become a more dangerous way to travel.

Crashes in Italy, Greece, Venezuela and Peru have claimed the lives of 334 people, and safety scares from Cyprus to Sydney have delayed many more flights.

Qantas experienced fire alarms on two separate flights this week, and Greek officials grounded three aircraft for safety reasons.

Air-crash investigators in Peru have been hindered by looters at the crash site in the Amazon jungle where 40 people died on August 23, and officials have cited fuel contamination as the chief suspect in the Sicilian and Venezuelan crashes, in which a combined total of 173 perished.

The monthly death toll is the highest since May 2002, when 485 people died in three disasters, and insurers estimate total losses at about £100m.

On Thursday, the French transport minister, Dominique Perben, announced that he would publish a list of airlines banned from French airspace as early as tomorrow, pre-empting an undertaking by the EU transport commissioner, Jacques Barrot, to publish similar information before the end of the year.

Legislation drafted in February requires all member states to share airline-safety information, and tour operators to disclose the carriers being booked for their customers.