Dodgy airlines given more time

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sun, 03/18/2007 4:09 PM

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government will give more time to airlines found to be neglecting aviation safety standards to improve their safety practices before resorting to the revocation of licenses.

The new director general for air transportation, Budhi M. Suyitno, said that following next week's public announcement on a new national rating system for airlines, poorly performing carriers would be given three months to continue operations.

""In the three-month period, we will give the airlines the chance to improve their compliance with safety regulations and let consumers decide,"" Budhi told reporters on the sidelines of an Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI) meeting Saturday.

Budhi said a decision on whether to liquidate lagging airlines would be made after the three-month period had elapsed, and would be based on complaints lodged by consumers.

A team at the Transportation Ministry has completed its review of 15 private and state-owned airlines operating in the country and is expected to release its report early next week.

The assessment was based on the airlines' compliance with mandatory safety standards universally applied in the aviation industry.

Based on their compliance with these standards, the country's airlines would be placed into three groups: compliant airlines that had rectified both major and minor infractions, non-compliant airlines that had managed to better their performance within the three-month period, and repeat offenders that had repeatedly ignored safety regulations and made no efforts to improve their performance.

Speculation was rife that the government would drop the axe on Adam Air, a low-cost carrier connected to House of Representatives Speaker Agung Laksono, which has repeatedly violated safety regulations.

On New Year's Day, a Boeing 737-400 belonging to Adam Air plunged into the sea off Sulawesi killing all 102 people on board. The jetliner's black box has not yet been retrieved.

Several media organizations have reported that the management of Adam Air ""has prepared for the worst"".

Budhi said drastic measures, including the revocation of licenses, would eventually be taken to save the nation's ailing aviation industry, which has suffered a string of severe blows following several air disasters.

""We aim to have a zero-accident status within the next few years, something that has been achieved by the aviation industries of other countries. They operate the same type of planes, sometimes of the same age. If they can, why can't we?"" Budhi asked.

The National Team for the Evaluation of Transportation Safety and Security stated in a nine-point recommendation to the government that it should shut down airlines that ignore safety regulations.

In an earlier report to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the evaluation team highlighted safety infractions found in almost every quarter of the aviation industry.

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