Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia will cooperate with the European Union and provide it with technical and safety data in hopes of being removed from its black list, an Indonesian Transport Ministry official said on Friday.
"Honestly, the black list itself is not surprising since we have had many airline accidents recently," Transport Ministry Director General for Aviation Budi Mulyawan Suyitno told Deutsche Presse-Agentur DPA.
"Although there is no direct impact, because no Indonesian airlines have been flying to Europe since 2004 ... we will improve our safety measures for Indonesian airlines, and will give the EU commission all the necessary data," Budi Mulyawan said.
The European Commission updated its airlines black list Thursday by banning all 51 Indonesian airlines from flying to the EU.
The black list was an important tool in preventing unsafe airlines from flying in Europe and informing passengers worldwide of safety problems, EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said.
Indonesian authorities on Tuesday revoked the licences of four domestic airlines and suspended a further five from operating for failing to comply with basic safety standards.
Suyitno said that only the national flag carrier, Garuda, had managed to improve and was elevated to the highest category, after fulfilling 84 per cent of aviation standards.
"In the future, I plan to make all Indonesian airlines' safety on the same level as Garuda," he told dpa.
The government has intensified safety efforts following a string of airline accidents and near-misses, including the crash-landing of a Garuda Airlines plane in Yogyakarta in March that left 21 dead, including five Australians.
Indonesia has dozens of low-cost airlines following the deregulation of the industry in late 1990s, leading to a quadrupling of passenger numbers in the past seven years.
But the industry has been beset by crashes, which prompted the Indonesian government to announce the new ratings system.
On New Year's Day, budget airline Adam Air plane plunged into the ocean off the coast of Sulawesi island en route from the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya to Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi, killing all 102 people on board.
No comments:
Post a Comment