National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia vice president of corporate communications Benny S. Butarbutar said the airline was mulling flights to two US cities, namely Los Angeles and New York, transiting in Narita in Japan, following the confirmation of the country’s new safety status from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

“Maybe [there will be flights] two or three times a week. We will use two of our 10 Boeing 777 aircraft,” he said.

Garuda Indonesia president director Arif Wibowo previously cited figures showing that 400,000 Indonesians fly to the US every year, with 150,000 of them heading to Los Angeles.

Lion Air president director Edward Sirait, meanwhile, said that although the country’s largest lowcost carrier had no plans so far to fly to the US, the upgrade opened up opportunities to push for overseas expansion.

“I don’t think it’s just about flying to the US. With this new category and the recent lifting of the EU ban, our aviation industry is deemed positive because the perceived risk is lower,” he said, citing his airline, which was recently cleared to fly to the EU, as an example.

In a letter received on Monday by Indonesian authorities, the FAA said the country now met the required international oversight standards for aviation, based on the organization’s audit. It stated that it would immediately upgrade Indonesia’s aviation safety status from Category 2 to Category 1, thereby allowing Indonesian carriers for take off to the US.

The US aviation regulator had downgraded Indonesia’s aviation safety to Category 2 in 2007 following a series of airline accidents at the time, as well as a lack of regulations on qualifications and monitoring procedures.

In the same year, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) audits revealed 121 loopholes in the Indonesian air safety oversight system, which was seen as contributing to the FAA downgrade and the EU’s decision to ban Indonesian airlines from flying to Europe.

The upgrade has been the ministry’s main goal in improving the country’s aviation safety, with around 60 new regulations on the matter issued last year alone.

“Today, all Indonesian airlines can fly to the US, and I hope all of them can prepare to propose [flights] to the US,” the Transportation Ministry’s director general for air transportation, Suprasetyo, said at a press conference on Monday.

The ministry said it also expected local airlines to benefit from lower insurance premiums and greater trust from aircraft manufacturers and lessors, as the country was now deemed safer for flights.

The upgrade puts the country on the same level as neighboring countries Malaysia and Singapore, which also enjoy Category 1 safety status.

FAA audits, consisting of 283 items, are based on three aspects, including licensing, airworthiness and operation. Its auditors assess airlines’ monitoring procedures and their implementation of regulations on matters such as aircraft operation and human resources.

Suprasetyo said the ministry would work to maintain the country’s Category 1 status in the FAA’s next assessment, a date for which has not yet been announced.

“We hope the stakeholders can work together with us [on maintaining the status]. We will keep on fixing issues concerning safety and service,” he said.

Indonesian National Air Carriers Association (INACA) secretary general Tengku Burhanuddin applauded the safety upgrade. However, he said national airlines first had to study the commercial flight potential to cities in the US.

“They cannot just fly there. They need to study it first,” he said.

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