T

he International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) top official told Indonesian airlines Wednesday that safety and infrastructure should remain their top priority.

Adopting international aviation safety standards and infrastructure development, including building a larger airport in Jakarta, are important given the rapid growth of passenger and cargo traffic in the country, IATA director general and chief executive officer Giovanni Bisignani said Wednesday during a visit to
Jakarta.

“Coordinated government policies to ensure safety, cost-efficiency, effective infrastructure and environmental sustainability are needed,” Bisignani told a press conference.

Such policies are important because Indonesia’s aviation industry — which serves 240 million people who live on thousands of islands and travels to several world-class tourist attractions — has great potential to grow, he said.

Indonesia is part of the Asia-Pacific region, whose aviation industry was the most profitable in the world, he said.

“Asia-Pacific is leading the recovery with a forecast profit of US$2.2 billion and strong traffic growth,” he said.

“June passenger and cargo traffic for the region grew at 15.5 percent and 29.8 percent respectively, above the global average,” he added.

Bisignani said that Indonesia had improved its aviation safety as indicated by a recent decrease in non-fatal accidents.

The IATA reported that the number of non-fatal accidents in the country decreased to three this year from five in 2009 and 24 over the past five years.

“The situation is improving, but more must be done to improve the safety and the reputation of this country, which has been damaged by safety issues,” he said.

One way to improve the safety and reputation of the Indonesian aviation is by adopting IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) standards, he added.

The IOSA is an internationally recognized evaluation program that assesses airline operational management and control systems.

“I encourage the Indonesian government to make the IOSA a national requirement because it will ensure best practices in operational safety [that meets] the global standard,” he said.

The local aviation industry should prioritize safety and the improving the cost-efficiency and effectiveness of its infrastructure, he added.

Indonesia’s main airport, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, for example, cannot accommodate a rapidly increasing number of passengers, Bisignani said.

“Jakarta’s international airport has the capacity to handle 38 million passengers a year after the completion of Terminal 3, but passenger numbers are already topping 36.5 million with the government prediction of 10 percent annual growth. Jakarta’s airport infrastructure will not be able to cope,” he said.

Jakarta is one of the world’s capital cities where aviation infrastructure was left behind, and there is a critical need to develop a larger airport, he added.