EU Tells Indonesian Airlines “More Work to Do”

EU tells Indonesian airlines “more work to do”

JAKARTA, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) — Visiting European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) officials have asked Indonesian airlines and the government to improve the country’s air transportation performancefollowing a ban issued earlier this year, according to local mediaon Saturday.

The officials were in Indonesia from Monday to Friday for technical surveillance, oversight and verification of national airlines, after the European Commission (EC) decided in July to ban all Indonesian airlines from flying to the 27-nation bloc.

The ban was issued after a string of deadly crashes in Indonesia over the past few years, raising serious questions aboutthe government’s ability to provide adequate safety measures.

“They have met with four Indonesian airlines; Garuda Indonesia,Mandala, Premi Air and Air Fast, just now and they asked the four to make some improvements,” director general of air transportationBudhi Suyitno was quoted by local newspaper The Jakarta Post as saying.

He added that the four airlines had all secured contracts to fly to the European Union region in the future.

Budhi said EU officials first asked the four airlines to pay more attention to the quality of their pilots.

He said the EU officials also underlined the importance of implementing safety management systems in each of the airlines.

Thirdly, Budhi said, the EASA officials also suggested the airlines improve quality assurance measures such as training programs for the pilots. The fourth, he said, was a suggestion forthe air transportation regulator.

“They asked us (government) to speed up the recruitment of additional key personnel, including flight operation inspectors,” he said.

“They said Indonesian airlines had been on the right track and they were happy to see that we are really taking seriously (the need) to meet higher standards.” he said.

Separately, Transportation Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal said he expected the visiting EU team would have a positive impact on the nation’s airlines, although the visit would not automatically remove the EC ban on Indonesian airlines.

The six-member team will present the results of their verification before a meeting of the EC on Nov. 19 in Brussels, Belgium.

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