Garuda due back in EC soon with another 20 airlines under review

The Indonesian government has certified 20 of the country’s airlines as eligible to fly to Europe and will soon deliver a report to the European Union to have a flight ban from 2007 lifted, an aviation chief said over the weekend.

Herry Bhakti Singayuda, the Transportation Ministry’s director general of civil aviation, said he would submit a report regarding the airlines to the EU’s aviation commission for review in January. “We will see if the airlines certified are allowed to enter Europe, following [a lifting of the ban on] four other airlines,” he said. A flight ban was enforced by the EU on all Indonesian airlines in July 2007, basing the decision on safety concerns uncovered by a International Civil Aviation Organization audit. In July, flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, Mandala Airlines, PremiAir and Airfast managed to meet the ICAO requirements and were allowed to enter European airspace. So far, only Garuda has confirmed it will fly to Europe and plans to start a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam in June. The certification process, Herry said, is in accordance with the newly ratified Civil Aviation Safety Regulations, which oblige all airlines to earn an Air Operator Certificate. He declined to name the 20 airlines to be cleared, but he had previously hinted that Batavia Air, Lion Air and Sriwijaya Air would be among them. Herry said earlier that reports for a number of airlines would be submitted in November, but that plan was canceled because Herry said that some airlines “did not have sufficient documents.” Tengku Burhanuddin, secretary general of the Indonesia National Air Carriers Association, said the Transportation Ministry should draw up a timeline of when each airline would be eligible for release from the ban. “The ministry knows which airlines are ready, and which are not,” he said, “so they should be able to make a schedule for submissions [to the EU].” Souce: Jakarta Globe

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