Friendlier skies
Removal of long-standing EU ban a big confidence-builder for Indonesian airlines.
Indonesian airlines finally have clearance to fly European passengers to and across the vast archipelago following the decision by the European Union to completely lift a long-standing ban on Indonesian airlines from European airspace on safety grounds.
The decision was hailed as a “blessing” for the Muslim-majority nation, coming as it did on June 14, a day before the Eid festivities to celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Not only does it open the European skies to Indonesian airlines, but it also is a signal to European travellers in the country that they can now feel more secure about flying to various domestic destinations on airlines that serve domestic routes.
“It boosts the rating and public perception of our aviation industry and our airlines. It is a recognition of our aviation safety standards,” Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi told Asia Focus on June 15 on the sidelines of an Eid gathering at his residence in Jakarta.
The flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is the only airline that flies to Europe, with three flights a week on the Jakarta-London route and a service to Amsterdam. However, the routes lose money and there have been calls for a re-evaluation to the services.
The State Owned Enterprises Ministry in April called on Garuda to review the Jakarta-London flight, after the carrier reported an overall net loss in the first quarter of US$64.3 million, even though it was down from $101.2 million in the same period in 2017.
It therefore seems unlikely that any other Indonesian airlines will open international routes to Europe anytime soon. But Mr Sumadi said that whether or not international flights to Europe make money for Indonesian airlines is something for the business side of the industry to consider.
What matters most with the ban removal, he said, is that it reassures European citizens that aviation safety standards in Indonesia now meet international expectations.
“[European] foreigners who are visiting Indonesia will no longer be cautioned about [flying] domestic airlines. Therefore, we expect that it should be able to attract more foreign tourists to Indonesia,” Mr Sumadi added.
Arista Atmadjati, an aviation and tourism analyst, concurred that the ban removal is positive when it comes to upgrading the image of aviation safety in Indonesia.
“For [travellers], this is more about having a guaranteed assurance that their domestic trip in Indonesia would be assured,” he told Asia Focus, adding that in terms of business, it would be difficult for Indonesian airlines to profit if they launched international routes to Europe.
“It is already a competitive market with three Middle Eastern airlines — namely Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways — which have a geographical advantage being in the middle between Asia and Europe,” Mr Atmadjati said. “Not to mention the competition with fellow Asian airlines.”
For that reason, it remains to be seen if the change will really result in an influx of European travellers to Indonesia, he added.
Indonesian skies are already wide open for foreign visitor arrivals, so attracting foreign tourists is more about having destinations that are prepared to welcome them in terms of hospitality, accessibility and safety, he said.
In his view, Garuda could try to improve its revenue from serving the European route by f ocusing more on cargo.
“Try to grab the market and entice Indonesian exporters who have always preferred to use other airlines’ cargo,” he said.
The EU Air Safety List documents airlines that do not meet international safety standards, and are therefore subject to an operating ban or operational restrictions within the European Union. In its update announced on June 14, the European Commission (EC) removed all of the remaining 55 air carriers from Indonesia from the list, which had once contained 62 carriers from the country.
The EC said the removal reflected “further improvements to the aviation safety situation that was ascertained in the country”.
“The EU Air Safety List is one of our main instruments to continuously offer the highest level of air safety to Europeans. I am particularly glad that after years of work, we are today able to clear all air carriers from Indonesia. It shows that hard work and close cooperation pay off,” Violeta Bulc, the EC Commissioner for Transport, said in a statement.
All Indonesian carriers were put on the EU Air Safety List in 2007 in response to growing concerns about increasingly lax safety standards that had resulted in a string of accidents. Some airlines were gradually removed from the list from 2009 to 2011, among them Garuda, the now-defunct Mandala Airlines, AirAsia Indonesia and three other carriers. In 2016, Batik Air, Lion Air and Garuda’s low-cost subsidiary Citilink were also removed from the list.
Vincent Guerend, the EU ambassador to Indonesia, told Asia Focus that the EC decision reflected satisfaction with the work done by the transport ministry’s directorate-general for civil aviation to improve the standard of safety quality.
“The assessment has been made by civil aviation experts based on international rules by the International Civil Aviation Organization and the decision has been made under the proposal of the EC but unanimously taken by all 28 EU member states,” Mr Guerend said in a joint news conference with Mr Sumadi and Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on June 15.
Ms Retno said the total removal was the result of 11 years of diplomacy together with technical improvements on the part of the Transport Ministry as the regulator of civil aviation, and by the airlines as the operators.
“Our regulator has been assessed to be in full compliance with the international regulations on civil aviation. We have made a lot of progress which we need to sustain and to prevent it from regressing,” she told the news conference.
“This is about an international trust and we have to maintain this trust,” she added.
Foreigners who are visiting Indonesia will no longer be cautioned about [flying] domestic airlines. Therefore, we expect that it should be able to attract more foreign tourists to Indonesia
BUDI KARYA SUMADI
Transport Minister