NEWS FOCUS: INDONESIA OPTIMISTIC EU FLIGHT BAN WILL BE LIFTED IN JUNE
Antara - 23 May 2009Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia was optimistic that the European
Union will lift its flight ban in June, 2009, thus enabling the
national flight carriers to enter European air space again.
Such optimism could be seen from the information obtained from the
transportation ministry which was believed the European Union in June
would lift the ban preventing Indonesian aircraft from entering
European airspace and clouding Indonesia`s airline services since 2007.
Following Indonesia`s bad aviation safety record as marked with many
air accidents, the Commission in 2007 banned all Indonesian airlines
from flying to European air space.
Harry Bhakti, the ministry`s directorate general, said here on Friday,
his side had received a letter on May 18 from the European Commission
signaling a positive response in relation to the lifting of the flight
ban.
According to him, the letter was a reply to a long distance
conversation between the ministry and the commission, regarding the
findings of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO),
tempointeraktif.com, reported.
The ministry stated that the six remaining requirements stipulated by
the ICAO had been fulfilled. The ICAO, however, had yet to inspect
first-hand three of the six points, covering the carrier`s operation
and supervision, and the installation of flight safety equipment.
"ICAO plans to conduct an inspection in Jakarta on June 15," Harry said.
The three other points already approved by the ICAO cover licensing,
the addition of inspectors and the establishment of a National Air
Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT).
"So, we have complied with their requests," Harry said.
The results of Indonesia`s work to improve its air safety system will
be presented to a European Commission Conference in Brussels, Belgium,
late in June.
In the meantime, an expert on international law, Said Nizar who is a
lecture at the Hassanuddin University of Makassar said that it was time
for Indonesia to breath fresh air of European air space into which
Indonesian aircrafts are banned from entering.
The EU flight ban on Indonesia had been several times extended since
late 2007 and therefore the government should show serious attention to
efforts to prevent air accidents from happening to civilian flights.
A series of air accidents in the country was believed to be the reason
for EU to extend its flight ban on Indonesian airlines, Nizar said.
"We should make the necessary corrections and improvements to secure
flight safety. The EU needs to be informed about this, that we are
responsible for the improvement of flight safety and security," he
said.
Better communication and consultation were aimed at making the European
Union know that Indonesia is serious in improving and maintaining its
domestic flight safety and security.
"The flight operators need to devote more attention to flight safety.
Therefore the regulators should not be lax and permissive in this case,
if there is a deviation that may risk flight safety," he said.
"Drawing a lesson from many accidents in the past ten years regardless
of the EU ban, we have to make all out efforts to improve
transportation safety," Nizar said.
Last November, a five expert member team of the European Aviation
Safety Agency (EASA) led by Frederico Grandini last November to audit
and verify the condition of Indonesian airline companies including
their regulators and operators predicted that the flight ban would
likely be lifted at the end of 2007.
In fact, the European Union (EU) prolonged its flight ban despite such
improvement already made by the government of this largest archipelagic
country.
The result of their work as they noticed that improvements had been
made in the skills of the pilots and crew members, maintenance and
others, both hardware and software really made Indonesian
Transportation Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal satisfied.
The team, comprising Jean-Luis Ammeloot of EASA (Germany), Declan
Fitzpatrick (EASA, Ireland), Dick Nederlof (EASA, the Netherlands),
Annette Ruge (EASA, Germany) and Auke Tjeerd Sebastian van der Weide
(EASA, Germany), was satisfied with the current condition of the
Indonesian airline companies.
Regarding the regulators (based on their explanations to the
transportation minister), Minister Jusman said the team noticed that
several things, especially regulations, still needed improvement,
although not fundamentally.
On the EU team`s findings that needed improvement by the regulators and
operators, Jusman said they had yet to make a final decision as they
were only a team handling technical matters, and no decision makers.
Actually, the European Union had praised the steps taken by Indonesian
government, but still awaiting approval from the 26 European Union
member countries that the improvements made by Indonesia were
permanent.
The transportation minister said the most important thing was that he
had expressed the Indonesian government's wish for the lifting of the
flight ban on 51 Indonesian airline companies since July 6, 2007.
Even the team had noticed such improvement Indonesia had made in flight
safety, but the UE was still reluctant to lift its ban on all Indonesia
airline companies. "Isn`t that strange?", Indonesian Foreign Affairs
Ministry Teuku Faizasyah said.
What was hard to receive in the past was that Indonesia had done
everything to improve the fligt safety in relations to the operator and
regulators in the country`s airlines, but the country still could not
get the appropriate response.
In fact, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had
reached 60 percent in improving flight safety and therefore it was
quite logical for Indonesia to expect better results and assessment
from the EU.
"We also regret such unilateral ban imposed by the EU before consulting
it first with Indonesia. The judgement made by the EU has yet to
satisfy Indonesia," Teuku said.
With
the European Union`s refusal to lift its flight ban on all Indonesian
airlines, this largest archipelagic country has been internationally
mocked again, Bachrul Hakim, an aviation observer said.
"Indonesia has really been mocked. This is a setback because our
country continues to be considered a marginal one incapable of securing
its flight safety," he said when contacted by phone.
With
the positive signal on the lifting of the flight ban on Indonesia air
carriers, Bachrul said Indonesia should uphold flight safety by
reducing flight accidants. (*)