By Eliswan Azly
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - It has been two years now that Indonesian aircrafts have been banned from flying to European destinations. But the Indonesian government and airline companies are still hoping the European Union would lift the flight ban.
Air Transportation Director General Budhi Muliawan said in Jakarta on Tuesday the European Union had once indicated that it would lift the ban next year following improvements in its community-level relations with Indonesia.
A team of government officials was reported to have met with the European Union recently to discuss not only air transportation issues but also matters on fishery. During the meeting there were indications that the EU was already open to cooperation with Indonesia.
The EU said it had ignored seven findings with regard to Indonesian flights. "But when the team returned to Indonesia the number of ignored findings increased to 33. God willing, the EU will lift its ban in 2009," the director general said.
"We hope it could be endorsed this year," the director general said.
He said that seven findings were still under negotiations while 29 others were referred to the bill on aviation.
"The total number of findings is 69. The seven which are still under negotiations include the number of competent flight instructors for wide-bodied planes and navigation system.
"They are also available for talks through a teleconference on Friday (Nov.21)," he said adding that the EU new ambassador to Indonesia also had a goodwill to improve relations.
Offer of technical assistance
A number of European countries such as Germany, France and the Netherlands had also offered technical assistance for security and flight safety. "Sweden and the UK even offered human resources training in aviation," he added.
He said that the matter constituted a concrete step for them to open themselves to close and concrete cooperation with Indonesia.
But Transportation Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal said that so far they had not yet taken any decision yet.
The European Union has imposed a ban on Indonesian planes to fly over its airspace along with those of other countries since July 2007. In every three months, the European evaluates the condition of the airlines subjected to the ban.
In the meantime, President Yudhoyono during the 7th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Beijing last month, also took the opportunity to lobby European leaders to lift the EU ban on Indonesian flights to Europe.
The president raised the flight ban issue at a meeting with EU president Jose Manuel Barroso in the summit`s sidelines. At that time there was still a clause on the Aviation Bill which was still an issue, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said. .
According to Wirayuda, the EU Commission was in principle sticking to its previously stated position, namely that Indonesia should revise its transportation law to better ensure passenger safety. The EU also wanted to see safety regulations at airline operators` level.
After the Indonesian tranporation law had been revised, the EU would conduct periodic assessments of Indonesian airlines` safety conditions until they reached a score of 65.
"The scores of some of the airlines, have now already risen from 25 to 35," he said adding that the EU was expected to lift the ban on the Indonesian airlines one after the other.
Actually the EU admitted there had been an improvement in the safety performance of three airlines, namely Garuda Indonesia, Merpati and Airfast, Wirajuda said.
More important to note, the EU explained that they had not discriminated against Indonesian airlines. "They said they had recently also banned two EU airlines. So they are not discriminating," he said.
However, the European leaders that had talked with Indonesia even showed their preparedness to help Indonesia. "They asked about what had really been the problem and what they could do to help," he said.
The minister said the negotiations with the EU would continue until the ban was lifted. "At least, they could first lift the ban on airlines that had already improved their safetry performance, Wirajuda said.
Earlier Teuku Faizasyah, a spokesperson of the foreign ministry was quoted by AFP as saying that the European Union`s decision to extend a flight ban on all Indonesian airlines for safety reasons could be politically motivated.
The European Commission and the EU`s Air Safety Committee unanimously rejected a request by Indonesian airlines to be taken off the region`s blacklist of unsafe airlines.
"The way we see it, the EU always puts their actions (in terms of) technicality issues. But we question if there are political motivations behind the decision," he said..
The EU found three key airlines that had applied for a "fast track" lift of the ban, including flag-carrier Garuda Indonesia, could not be confirmed as safe enough for European skies, despite concerted efforts to improve safety.
In maintaining the ban on all 51 Indonesian airlines, the EU said Indonesia had not introduced an efficient safety oversight regime and that safety gains had not yet been assessed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
Indonesia had been hoping to have the bans lifted on at least four airlines by the end of July.
"We are disappointed with the prolonging of the ban," Faizasyah said. "We`ve done some improvements so we do hope that those actions taken could be considered."
The ban was imposed on Indonesian airlines last year after a string of deadly crashes in the archipelago, which is heavily reliant on air links.
An Adam Air plane crashed into the sea off Indonesia`s Sulawesi island in January 2007 due to pilot error, killing everyone on board. Two months later, a Garuda jet burst into flames on landing in Central Java, killing 21 people.
The pilot of that plane was charged in court with negligence and "deliberately" causing damage to the aircraft on Thursday, and could face up to life in prison.
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