Source: Radio Australia Author: 07/26/2008
Subject Concerned: Government Airlines
The European Commission is urging Indonesia to take corrective measures and increase inspections of all aircraft following its decision to maintain a ban on all the country's airlines flying to the European Union.
The Commission upheld the ban, imposed a year ago, saying Indonesian authorities haven't implemented an oversight program on airlines under their regulatory control.
The original ban followed a series of air crashes in Indonesia since deregulation of the aviation sector in the late 1990s.
Head of a European Commission delegation to Jakarta, Pierre Philippe, says the message to Indonesian authorities is to address the findings by the the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
It's identified 121 problems in Indonesia's safety system, including a lack of aircraft checks and inspectors' inability to ground a plane.
A report from Indonesia's Civil Aviation directorate-general says from January through to April Garuda Indonesia only performed nine of 56 required, while Mandala Airlines only performed two out of 27.