EU and Indonesian Airlines

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 07/02/2007 10:36 AM | Opinion

The front page of the June 29 edition of The Jakarta Post reports that the European Commission (EC) has banned all Indonesian airlines, including Garuda Indonesia, from flying to Europe because of safety concerns.

This unfortunate development should be seen as a wake-up call for Indonesia to get its act together in terms of ensuring appropriate standards of airline safety in this country. Indonesian air travelers are certainly entitled to expect that local airlines meet internationally accepted safety standards even if those airlines only fly domestic routes.

The director general of air transportation says that the EU ban merely reflects a ""communication failure"" and that, once the EC is provided with a copy of the recently announced results of the Transportation Ministry's ""Second Airline Safety Survey"", the EU ban should be lifted.

It will certainly be interesting to see whether or not the director general's apparent confidence in the supposedly new-found safety standards of Indonesia's airlines is justified.

It is indeed remarkable that -- notwithstanding the recent string of domestic airline accidents, near accidents and mishaps -- all but one of Indonesia's airlines managed, by the time of the June survey, to meet the Transportation Ministry's minimum required safety standards and thereby keep its valuable operating license.

If, contrary to the expressed confidence of the director general, the EC refuses to accept, at face value, the results of the June survey and instead insists on a more independent assessment of the actual safety standards of Indonesia's airlines, there will surely be some well-deserved embarrassment at the Transportation Ministry unless any such independent assessment unequivocally confirms the accuracy of the June survey's results.

When it comes to airline safety, there is really no room for compromise in the interests of short-term commercial advantage.

WILLIAM A. SULLIVAN
Jakarta

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