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he Transportation Ministry is optimistic that the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will upgrade the country’s aviation safety status, lifting restrictions currently imposed on Indonesian airlines looking to fly to the world’s largest economy.

Indonesia is currently still in Category 2, signaling the lack of regulations necessary to oversee air carriers in accordance with minimum international standards, according to the FAA.

The government has been working to upgrade the country’s status to Category 1 to put it on a par with international standards on aviation safety and security as well as to enable local airlines to fly without restrictions to the US.

However, the FAA’s latest audit in March still found seven areas that needed improvement to make a case for an upgrade, including on recurrent training for pilots, the number of pilots and licensing procedures.

The FAA gave the Transportation Ministry 65 days, until May, to resolve the findings.

“[The latest audit progress] has been positive. There are no issues left,” the ministry’s director general for air transportation Suprasetyo said, adding that it had received informal FAA notification during its visit to Washington DC this month.

However, Suprasetyo said that the announcement of the FAA category upgrade might be made in August as a result of administrative issues and the announcement might be made by the US embassy in Indonesia.

FAA audits are based on three aspects, including licensing, airworthiness and operations. It downgraded Indonesia’s aviation safety to Category 2 in 2007 through the agency’s International Aviation Safety Assessment program.

In the same year, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) audits also spotted 121 loopholes in the Indonesian air safety oversight system, which led in part to the FAA as well as the EU downgrading the safety status and banned Indonesian airlines from flying to the US and Europe, respectively.

The ministry has since then boasted that it had improved the security aspects of the ICAO to 94.5 percent compliance currently.

Suprasetyo said he expected the ICAO to announce their findings early next year on the country’s aviation safety and security.

With the expected progress on the FAA and ICAO, Suprasetyo maintained that he would also facilitate airlines willing to fly to the US, such as national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia.

“We will summon Garuda later, so they can be proactive in applying for slots,” he said.

Garuda Indonesia president director Arif Wibowo previously said that the company had been mulling flying to one of two cities in the US, namely Los Angeles and New York, transiting in Narita in Japan.

The number of Indonesian passengers flying to the US amounts to 400,000 yearly, with 150,000 passengers destined for Los Angeles, said Arif.

Indonesian National Air Carriers Association (INACA) secretary general Tengku Burhanuddin said that the upgraded status would definitely make it easier for the country’s airlines that wanted to fly to the US.

“But it also depends on their analysis of market demand in the US,” he said, adding that he expected reduced insurance premiums for Indonesian airlines with the category upgrade from the FAA.