EU clips Indonesia's wings

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 07/03/2007 10:40 AM  |  Opinion

Even though the European Union's ban on all Indonesian airlines from its airspace will become effective this Friday, the verdict is final: Indonesia has failed to meet international aviation safety standards and most Europeans, intending to spend their summer holidays in Bali, will use direct flights on international carriers.

Even though no Indonesian carriers currently fly to EU countries -- as even national flag-carrier Garuda Indonesia ceased its European operations in 2004 due to big losses -- the blacklist will loom long over the reputation of Indonesia's air safety record.

Tourism agencies around the EU are now obliged to tell customers to avoid even internal flight connections within Indonesia.

Garuda is certainly most adversely affected by the EU blacklist because it had planned to reopen services to Amsterdam next year. The ban will also do substantial damage to Indonesia's tourism industry given Garuda's crucial role in promoting inbound tourists.

Civil Aviation Director General Budi Mulyawan could argue that EU aviation experts have not seen the latest data on improvements made in the enforcement of tougher safety standards. But this would not change the international perception that our airlines are now unsafe.

Indeed, the string of airplane accidents over the past two years has raised great concern over our aviation safety as investigations revealed failings in maintenance, operations, certification and administrative standards.

There have not been any credible explanations about the latest accidents -- an Adam Air jetliner plunged into the sea near Sulawesi on New Year's Day killing more than 100 passengers; the fuselage of another Adam Air plane split in half after landing in Surabaya and then in March another jetliner operated by Garuda sped down a runway after landing and burst into flames, leaving 21 dead.

Concerns the fast-growing domestic airline industry, which was deregulated in 1998, had not been supported with adequate investment in infrastructure or a strong enforcement of safety regulations proved legitimate.

No significant improvements were made even after the government introduced in late March a new safety rating system for all domestic airlines.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration instead downgraded the quality of Indonesia's safety oversight mechanism to level two. This meant Indonesia's civil aviation authority failed to comply with the International Civil Aviation Organization's aviation safety standards.

But the government did not follow up the warnings from the FFA and ICAO with any concerted safety effort.

The problem then is not about out-of-date data -- even though Indonesian officials also reportedly failed to satisfactorily reply to all the questions filed by EU aviation experts.

But there seems to be a great shadow of doubt over the integrity and technical competence of our civil aviation directorate general.

No wonder, the blacklist was decided only a few days after the civil aviation authority upgraded the country's national flag-carrier Garuda's safety standard from category two to category one and revoked the licenses of nine small airlines last Monday.

There is something very wrong when our civil aviation authority certifies an airline that experts in EU don't think is safe.

The government is certainly facing an uphill task in convincing the EU aviation authority to rethink its decision.

The most effective way to accomplish this would be to strengthen the enforcement of aviation safety standards.

Although our airline safety record - or lack thereof -- has been a predominately domestic issue, after the EU's ruling, surely the government will react quickly?

In the past our government has reacted well to this kind of international pressure -- so we should see now a huge and very real commitment to improving the safety of our airlines.

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