UPWARD FLIGHT PATH
Indonesian aviation finding its wings
Although it had the worst score for flight delays during the end of the recent Ramadan holiday season in an Indonesian Transportation Ministry survey, the low-cost carrier Lion Air has had a lot to celebrate lately.
In addition to being removed from a European Union blacklist, the fast-growing airline has been moving up in the influential Skytrax World Airline Awards, based on surveys of millions of passengers worldwide. It ranked seventh on the list of best low-cost premium cabins and 10th for premium seats.
The EU on June 16 removed Lion Air, its subsidiary Batik Air and the Indonesian carrier Citilink from its Air Safety List of airlines that do not meet international safety standards and are therefore subject to bans or restrictions on flying in the EU.
Edward Sirait, president-director of Lion Air Group, said the EU decision showed that the management of Lion and Batik were committed to aviation safety and had met international standards for airline safety and procedures.
Albert Burhan, the president and CEO of Citilink Indonesia, said he expected the vote of confidence from the EU could help the budget airline speed up its international expansion, although flying to Europe is still a distant prospect. Its focus for now remains on serving domestic and regional routes in light of Asean economic integration.
Citilink recently reported its first fullyear profit, earning US$4.9 million in 2015, on revenue of $470 million, an increase of 16.5% from the year before. Passenger numbers increased 26.7% to 9.5 million and its average load factor improved to 80.2% from 79.6%.
The decision to remove the three Indonesian carriers from the blacklist was based on the unanimous opinion of safety experts on the EU Air Safety Committee, said Vincent Guerend, the EU ambassador to Indonesia.
“The EU noted that Indonesia’s civil aviation authority has made improvements,” he added.
Hadinoto Soedigno, operational director for Citilink Indonesia, said the airline underwent a rigorous safety audit by the EU team over a period lasting almost five months.
Alvin Lie, an aviation analyst who is also Indonesia’s Ombudsman, said he appreciated the EU decision.
“But I am concerned that Indonesia is the only Southeast Asian country on the list. That implies Indonesia’s air safety is below the standard of our neighbours and we are on par with those minor African countries,” Lie told Asia Focus, referring to carriers from Zambia and Madagascar that were also removed from the blacklist.
The EU assesses air safety based on international safety standards and those outlined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), including its Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP). An audit conducted in 2007 by the ICAO led to the blacklisting in Europe.
Indonesia scored poorly on a 2014 audit by the ICAO, below the global average in all eight categories, largely because the Transportation Ministry was seen as understaffed and struggling to deal with the rapid growth of the aviation industry. Authorities have since made some improvements and the country’s score improved to 51.4% this year but was still below the global average.
Direct comparisons are not always possible because some countries have not been audited in recent years. For example, China had a score of 86.4% based on an audit in 2007, and Malaysia scored 81.1% in 2005. India, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam scored higher than Indonesia, ranging from 66.8% to 56.7%, in various years as far back as 2011.
Thailand remains the worst performer in Southeast Asia with a 33.6% compliance score based on a 2015 audit, which compelled the government to undertake sweeping reforms of the country’s underfunded and undermanned aviation regulation system. Cambodia also scored poorly at 40.3% in an ICAO audit in 2014.
However, the assessments conducted by the ICAO and the EU differ in several respects, and Indonesian authorities have suggested there is a disconnect between the two bodies.
When asked to comment on EU assessments of other countries’ air safety, ICAO spokesman Anthony Philbin said the UN agency did not audit individual airlines, airports, manufacturers, maintenance companies or other industry entities and did not comment on the activities of other organisations or states that do.
He said the focus of the ICAO’s safety-related monitoring was on the resources, legislation and procedures that state governments set out in order to fulfill their responsibilities under the Chicago Convention to oversee aviation safety in their territories.
“In general, whether in Asia Pacific or other world regions, the ICAO helps states to cooperate and coordinates assistance and capacity-building to help them improve the effective level of implementation of all global standards and recommended practices for civil aviation,” Philbin said in an email to Asia Focus.
The EU sent a technical team to Indonesia in April to conduct on-site evaluations and field observations, after which civil aviation authorities and representatives from the three airlines on the EU list were invited to brief officials in Brussels about their progress.
Chappy Hakim, a former Indonesian Air Force officer and transport safety expert, said it seemed unfair that EU regulators could ban Indonesian airlines from European skies, while allowing airlines from Europe to fly to a country such as Indonesia where the ICAO deems safety oversight deficient.
“And how come they now allow airlines overseen by a regulator that they deemed non-compliant by their standards, to fly to Europe?” he asked rhetorically.
He suggested there could be a relationship between Lion Air’s exclusion from the blacklist and its record order of 234 Airbus jetliners in 2013 at a time when the airline was still on the list because of its spotty safety record.
But Guerend denied any link to the $24-billion order made with the European plane maker.
“Obviously the only thing that matters here is safety for EU passengers and ultimately, the safety of Indonesian passengers. This is the only requirement and the only concern,” he said.
There are still 52 Indonesian-registered airlines among 216 airlines from 19 countries, mainly in African, banned from EU skies.
The flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, the parent of Citilink, was removed from the EU blacklist in 2009 and now has regular scheduled flights to London and Amsterdam. Other airlines excluded from the ban in 2009 were Airfast Indonesia and Ekspres Transportasi Antarbenua or Premiair, followed by AirAsia Indonesia in 2010.