ID :
69159
Sun, 07/05/2009 - 22:10
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/69159
The shortlink copeid
News Focus: EU FLIGHT BAN TO BE LIFTED FOR FOUR RI AIRLINES
By Eliswan Azly
Jakarta, July 5 (ANTARA) - The flight ban imposed by the European Union on Indonesian airline companies in 2007 will be lifted for four of them in the first half of 2010.
The four airline companies to be allowed to fly to Europe again on the basis of a recommendation made by the EU Air Safety Committee are Garuda Indonesia, Mandala, AirFast and Premi Air.
Garuda Indonesia would resume flights to Europe in the first half of 2010, Garuda Communications Chief Pujobroto said on Saturday in response to the decision of the EU Air Safety Committee at its three-day meeting which ended in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday.
One of the decisions was recommending the lifting of the EU flight ban on Garuda Indonesia, Mandala, AirFast and Premi Air.
The decisions will formally be issued nearly two weeks after being translated into 22 EU official languages and signed by the board of commissioners for transportation affairs.
Pujobroto said Garuda positively welcomed the decision and would resume its flights to Europe particularly to Amsterdam in the first phase.
It would take nearly nine months for the national flag carrier to make preparations for flight resumption, he said.
He said Garuda was still undecided about the types of planes to be used in the resumed European flights.
"But as an alternative, the planes to be operated can be A 330-200s. Therefore, we need one stopover or cannot serve a direct flight," he said.
If all the 10 Boeing 777s ordered by Garuda were to be delivered nearly in late 2010 or early 2011, it would serve non-stop flights to a number of European cities, he said.
One-and-half years have gone by since the European Union (EU) in July 2007 imposed a flight ban on all Indonesian airline companies to fly to Europe following a series of fatal air accidents.
Earlier. brighter prospects would predictedly come to Indonesia in mid-2009 as Julian Wilson, head of a EU Commission delegation to Indonesia during a courtesy call on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in January 2009, mentioned the possibility of lifting the flight ban in a not-too-distant time.
At that time, Wilson said the flight ban might be lifted in March or June this year.
In fact, residential foreign affairs spokesman Dino Pati Djalal said Wilson also expressed optimism that the flight ban might be lifted even before June 2009.
However, the flight ban on Indonesian airlines was not politically motivated, but merely for technical reasons. "The lifting of the flight ban will be carried out as the EU and Indonesia still have to settle several problems," Dino quoted Wilson as saying.
Wilson also conveyed EU's appreciation over the enactment of the aviation law on flight safety by the House of Representatives (DPR), Dino said, adding that the EU considered the aviation law as a key factor for an earlier lifting of the flight ban.
In response to the possible lifting of the flight ban, Transportation Minister Djusman Syafei Djamal said there was no reason for the EU to extend the flight ban as the DPR enacted the aviation law on December 17, 2008.
"In our latest meeting, the EU representatives said that if the aviation law has been issued, the flight ban might be lifted. Now we have enacted this law, and therefore there is no more reason for the EU to delay the lifting of the flight ban," the minister said.
As to Wilson's promise to lift the ban during the meeting with the president early this year, the minister even expressed his doubt over the lifting of the ban not later than June 2009.
Since European Union Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso came to Indonesia in November 2008, Djusman said the EU has several times promised to lift the flight ban.
"I only believe in 50 percent of the truth of the pledge, because it had often been made in the past, but still no result," the minister said.
The minister added that in March 2009, the European Union planned to hold a meeting in Brussels, capital of Belgium, which will also be attended by an Indonesian delegation, to discuss the flight ban on Indonesian airline companies to fly to Europe.
The meeting will focus on the stipulations and implementation of the aviation law to guarantee flight safety, and supervision of the airline companies' operations.
Actually, Indonesia has already implemented a program on the national flag-carrier Garuda Indonesia meeting EU standards, as well as Mandala Airlines and Airfast doing the same thing. This received a boost in May when Garuda passed a safety audit by the International Air Transport Association.
"The Indonesian authorities still have not developed and implemented an efficient oversight program on any of the carriers under their regulatory control," said the EU Air Safety Committee when rejecting the three airlines' request for permission to return to the EU. It was also stated that Indonesia had no effective oversight program and that the International Civil Aviation Organization was unable to assess recent changes.
The committee also noted that inspectors did not have the power to ground substandard aircraft and urged Indonesia to increase its inspection. A report from the Indonesian director-general of civil aviation said that, from January to April, Garuda had conducted only nine of the 56 mandatory surveys, while Mandala conducted only two out of 27.
The committee admitted that the three airline companies had made some improvements, but was unanimous in rejecting their request to have the ban lifted.
Teuku Faizasyah, spokesman for the Indonesian foreign ministry, expressed disappointment at the result and questioned the reasons behind the extension of the flight ban.
"We are disappointed with the prolonged ban. We've made some improvements so we do hope that these will be taken into consideration," he told reporters. "The way we see it, the EU always puts their actions (in terms of) technicality issues. But we question if there are political motivations behind the decision."
The ban was imposed in 2007 following deregulation in the 1990s that triggered a string of aviation accidents. On New Year's Day in 2007, 102 people were killed when an Adam Air Boeing 737 crashed into the ocean near Sulawesi. This was followed in March by a Garuda 737 overshooting the runway at Yogyakarta Internataional Airport with 21 fatalities.
Adam Air has since been grounded, while Captain Marwoto Komar, pilot of the Garuda jet, went on trial on charges of a range of alleged offences, the most serious of which could see him imprisoned for life.
***2***
Jakarta, July 5 (ANTARA) - The flight ban imposed by the European Union on Indonesian airline companies in 2007 will be lifted for four of them in the first half of 2010.
The four airline companies to be allowed to fly to Europe again on the basis of a recommendation made by the EU Air Safety Committee are Garuda Indonesia, Mandala, AirFast and Premi Air.
Garuda Indonesia would resume flights to Europe in the first half of 2010, Garuda Communications Chief Pujobroto said on Saturday in response to the decision of the EU Air Safety Committee at its three-day meeting which ended in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday.
One of the decisions was recommending the lifting of the EU flight ban on Garuda Indonesia, Mandala, AirFast and Premi Air.
The decisions will formally be issued nearly two weeks after being translated into 22 EU official languages and signed by the board of commissioners for transportation affairs.
Pujobroto said Garuda positively welcomed the decision and would resume its flights to Europe particularly to Amsterdam in the first phase.
It would take nearly nine months for the national flag carrier to make preparations for flight resumption, he said.
He said Garuda was still undecided about the types of planes to be used in the resumed European flights.
"But as an alternative, the planes to be operated can be A 330-200s. Therefore, we need one stopover or cannot serve a direct flight," he said.
If all the 10 Boeing 777s ordered by Garuda were to be delivered nearly in late 2010 or early 2011, it would serve non-stop flights to a number of European cities, he said.
One-and-half years have gone by since the European Union (EU) in July 2007 imposed a flight ban on all Indonesian airline companies to fly to Europe following a series of fatal air accidents.
Earlier. brighter prospects would predictedly come to Indonesia in mid-2009 as Julian Wilson, head of a EU Commission delegation to Indonesia during a courtesy call on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in January 2009, mentioned the possibility of lifting the flight ban in a not-too-distant time.
At that time, Wilson said the flight ban might be lifted in March or June this year.
In fact, residential foreign affairs spokesman Dino Pati Djalal said Wilson also expressed optimism that the flight ban might be lifted even before June 2009.
However, the flight ban on Indonesian airlines was not politically motivated, but merely for technical reasons. "The lifting of the flight ban will be carried out as the EU and Indonesia still have to settle several problems," Dino quoted Wilson as saying.
Wilson also conveyed EU's appreciation over the enactment of the aviation law on flight safety by the House of Representatives (DPR), Dino said, adding that the EU considered the aviation law as a key factor for an earlier lifting of the flight ban.
In response to the possible lifting of the flight ban, Transportation Minister Djusman Syafei Djamal said there was no reason for the EU to extend the flight ban as the DPR enacted the aviation law on December 17, 2008.
"In our latest meeting, the EU representatives said that if the aviation law has been issued, the flight ban might be lifted. Now we have enacted this law, and therefore there is no more reason for the EU to delay the lifting of the flight ban," the minister said.
As to Wilson's promise to lift the ban during the meeting with the president early this year, the minister even expressed his doubt over the lifting of the ban not later than June 2009.
Since European Union Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso came to Indonesia in November 2008, Djusman said the EU has several times promised to lift the flight ban.
"I only believe in 50 percent of the truth of the pledge, because it had often been made in the past, but still no result," the minister said.
The minister added that in March 2009, the European Union planned to hold a meeting in Brussels, capital of Belgium, which will also be attended by an Indonesian delegation, to discuss the flight ban on Indonesian airline companies to fly to Europe.
The meeting will focus on the stipulations and implementation of the aviation law to guarantee flight safety, and supervision of the airline companies' operations.
Actually, Indonesia has already implemented a program on the national flag-carrier Garuda Indonesia meeting EU standards, as well as Mandala Airlines and Airfast doing the same thing. This received a boost in May when Garuda passed a safety audit by the International Air Transport Association.
"The Indonesian authorities still have not developed and implemented an efficient oversight program on any of the carriers under their regulatory control," said the EU Air Safety Committee when rejecting the three airlines' request for permission to return to the EU. It was also stated that Indonesia had no effective oversight program and that the International Civil Aviation Organization was unable to assess recent changes.
The committee also noted that inspectors did not have the power to ground substandard aircraft and urged Indonesia to increase its inspection. A report from the Indonesian director-general of civil aviation said that, from January to April, Garuda had conducted only nine of the 56 mandatory surveys, while Mandala conducted only two out of 27.
The committee admitted that the three airline companies had made some improvements, but was unanimous in rejecting their request to have the ban lifted.
Teuku Faizasyah, spokesman for the Indonesian foreign ministry, expressed disappointment at the result and questioned the reasons behind the extension of the flight ban.
"We are disappointed with the prolonged ban. We've made some improvements so we do hope that these will be taken into consideration," he told reporters. "The way we see it, the EU always puts their actions (in terms of) technicality issues. But we question if there are political motivations behind the decision."
The ban was imposed in 2007 following deregulation in the 1990s that triggered a string of aviation accidents. On New Year's Day in 2007, 102 people were killed when an Adam Air Boeing 737 crashed into the ocean near Sulawesi. This was followed in March by a Garuda 737 overshooting the runway at Yogyakarta Internataional Airport with 21 fatalities.
Adam Air has since been grounded, while Captain Marwoto Komar, pilot of the Garuda jet, went on trial on charges of a range of alleged offences, the most serious of which could see him imprisoned for life.
***2***
