Garuda predicted to resume Europe flights in June

By Eliswan Azly

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.

But brighter prospects will come to this world largest archipelagic country in mid-2009 after the visit of Vice President Jusuf Kalla to Europe last week which seemed to have brought a good prospect to a possible resumption of flight service to European Space.

Upon his arrival in the country, Kalla said national flag-carrier Garuda Indonesia would possibly resume its flight to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in June this year.

"We hope Garuda will start flying to Europe again in June this year," Kalla said earlier this week.

Garuda had suspended its flights to Europe, including to Schippol airport in Amsterdam, following a ban imposed by the European Union on Indonesian airline flights in July 2007.

Kalla said, when the EU flight ban was declared, Garuda was required to make improvements on 60 flight safety points but now the list had shrunk to 10 points.

"It would be good for us to make a self-assessment. The remaining 10 points can be improved in the next two months," the vice president said, adding that Garuda had purchased several new aircrafts for the Jakarta-Amsterdam route.

Kalla said aircraft prices had dropped, so Garuda could buy several new ones for its Jakarta-Europe services.

Earlier, Julian Wilson, the head of the EC delegation to Indonesia during a courtesy call on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last month, mentioned that the European Union would likely lift the flight ban, imposed in 2007, in March or June this year.

Wilson also conveyed EU`s appreciation over the enactment of the aviation law on flight safety by the House of Representatives (DPR), according to presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal. He said the EU considered the aviation law as a key factor for an earlier lifting of the flight ban.

Meanwhile, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono welcomed the plan to lift the flight ban as it had hampered the growth of the Indonesian aviation industry and the promotion of Indonesian tourism in Europe.

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 had enacted the aviation law on December 17, 2008.

"In our latest meeting, the EU representative 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 any 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, the minister said he still was not so sure that the ban would he lifed 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 Organisation 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