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Editorial: Safety first
Wed, 03/19/2008 12:21 AM | Opinion
The decision by low-cost carrier Adam Air to temporarily stop all its flights until further notice deals a strong blow to the aviation industry -- notably the reputation of budget airlines.
The move defies "Everyone can fly", to borrow one of the airlines' motto, that has allowed people in the middle-to-low-income group in Indonesia to enjoy air travel.
Adam Air says the decision came after the company failed to reach an agreement with insurers. It cited regulations requiring that all operational aircraft carry insurance. The company's insurance premiums come due March 20.
President director of Adam Air, Adam Aditya Suherman, whose family controls 50 percent of the company's shares, said the airline had been trying to get more time from its insurers when rumors surfaced that the other shareholders "had pulled out".
To make matters worse, Hotman Paris Hutapea, attorney for Bhakti Investama Group, the investment company which owns the other half of the company, claimed the Suherman family had agreed to buy its shares.
Another representative of Bhakti Investama, Gustiono Kustianto, had linked the airline's minimum vision on flight safety and funds mismanagement as the reasons for the pull-out.
Of all the budget airlines operating in Indonesia, Adam Air has had the most accidents in the last two years. They include the plane that crashed in the Majene Sea, off South Sulawesi, on Jan. 1, 2007, killing all 102 passengers on board.
Last week, an Adam Air plane skidded off the runway in Batam, Riau Islands province, causing damage to the plane but fortunately avoiding human casualties.
The shareholder dispute only became public after aviation authorities imposed restrictions on Adam Air flights for safety reasons following the Batam accident.
We welcome the swift response of the Directorate General of Air Transportation that effectively put safety before the commercial interests of budget airlines.
Indonesia's record on airline safety still leaves a lot to be desired. Besides the high rate of air accidents, all Indonesian airlines, including flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, are still barred from traveling to Europe. The European Union apparently is still not convinced about the safety of Indonesian carriers.
The phenomenon of budget airlines in past decades has allowed more people across the archipelago to fly. Given the nature of Indonesian topography, flying is probably the most effective means of transport for most people. Low-cost carriers could not have come at a better time.
Adam Air is one of many airlines that have opened in the past 10 years to cater to the low-income group in Indonesia. Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport was not designed for the booming airline business and is now congested.
Unfortunately, the rapid growth of the aviation industry in Indonesia has not been accompanied by an equivalent capability on the part of aviation regulators to monitor and supervise the operations, especially as regards safety.
The free-for-all open-air competition became just that: Everyone was free to start up an airline even without any proven track record in the industry. They engaged in cut-throat competition by slashing fares. Going by the accident rates, some of the airlines have compromised on safety, endangering the lives of passengers.
Accident investigations aren't public, so there's no smoking gun proving a sacrifice of safety for quick profit. But the European Union ban on Indonesian airlines and the high accident rate are sufficient to suggest something is wrong.
TheThe Adam Air saga should become the momentum for aviation authorities to tighten monitoring, supervision and enforcement of legal and air transport safety measures.
For the general public, especially those who will be traveling over the upcoming extended weekend holiday, the best advice remains caveat emptor -- let the buyer beware.
While we shop for rock-bottom airfares, we should pay heed to airline safety records before making a decision on which airline to fly.
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It remains questionable if the closure of Adam Air is indeed a “strong blow” to the aviation industry and to the reputation of budget airlines as the author of the safety first editorial suggests. Unfortunately, it seems that the author only attends to the symptoms and fails to address the root cause for the ongoing challenges in the Indonesian aviation system.
For the records, Adam Air has never been a budget airline or a low cost carrier as it failed the correct business model - it was a low fare airline.
De facto, all Indonesian airlines (including Adam Air), airports and air navigation services providers have been forced in a “self-regulating mode” due to the inability of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to meet its international obligations in terms of safety oversight and implementation of international standards and are therefore only in part to blame for the deficiencies in the system.
At the Strategic Aviation Safety Summit in Bali in July 2007, the President of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) concluded that there was an urgent need to implement a concrete, realistic and achievable plan of action and the Indonesian government committed itself, inter alia, to improve the safety of its aviation safety system by implementing a safety programme in accordance with the new provisions of ICAO Annexes 6, 11 and 14. In addition, the government also committed to the implementation of safety management systems by airport operators, airlines and air navigation services providers.
Soon it will be a year since the Strategic Aviation Safety Summit and the expectations of the international aviation community, set by the “positive” outcome of the Strategic Aviation Safety Summit, have so far failed to materialise and progress has been marginal when compared to what is still outstanding in the context of the “Bali Declaration”. It remains therefore to be seen if the Directorate General of Civil Aviation is able to demonstrate that it takes safety matters serious or if the “plan of action” will end up somewhere on a shelf in Jakarta gathering dust.
So what should be done next to match the demands of the spectacular growth of air travel in Indonesia and to allow safe air travel for the middle-to-low income group?
1.The middle-to-low income group will have to let their politicians know that enough is enough and demand that those that have been elected by them accept responsibility and accountability for what is currently happening in the transportation system in general and in the aviation system in particular.
2.Indonesia needs to demonstrate the political will to overcome the challenges in its aviation system.
3.Indonesia needs the best practical tools and advice to restructure its Directorate General of Civil Aviation
4.Indonesia has to implement a safety programme before the end of 2008
5.Indonesia will have to implement Safety Management Systems at all its airlines, service providers, certified airports and air navigation services providers as soon as practicable
More could obviously be done, but that would be a good start for the future of aviation safety in Indonesia.