The European Union will ban all 51 Indonesian airlines including national carrier Garuda from its airspace on safety grounds, officials said on Thursday. The executive European Commission also announced that the EU would ban Angolan Airlines TAAG, just hours before one of the state carrier's aircraft crashed, killing at least six people.
The Indonesian ban, proposed by EU experts this week and due to take effect on July 6, follows a series of air crashes in Indonesia and reports of deteriorating safety standards since deregulation of the country's aviation sector in the late 1990s.
No Indonesian carriers fly to the EU, but the ban is set to harm the sprawling archipelago's tourist industry, as Europeans will be warned not to use Indonesian airlines on transit routes, such as between Jakarta and the island of Bali. "European citizens should avoid flying with these carriers," an EU official said. "They are really unsafe."
Another official, from the EU's executive Commission, said shortcomings had been discovered in the maintenance of aircraft, their operation deemed unsafe and the Indonesian aviation authorities judged unable to impose remedies.
In March, a Garuda Indonesia plane with 140 people on board overshot the runway in cultural capital Yogyakarta and burst into flames, killing 21 people, including five Australians. In January, a plane belonging to Indonesia's budget carrier Adam Air disappeared. All 102 on board are presumed dead. The Commission said Angolan Airlines TAAG and Ukrainian cargo operator Volare Aviation Enterprise would also be banned.
A TAAG Boeing 737 with 78 passengers aboard crashed later on Thursday in the northern city of M'banza Congo on Thursday, killing at least six people and injuring others, Angola's ANGOP news agency said.
The agency said the plane lost control while making an emergency landing and crashed into a building. It said a number of severely injured passengers were taken to hospital. In Indonesia, officials defended the country's aviation safety record, expressing hope the EU would rethink its decision at a meeting of air safety experts in October.
The director-general of civil aviation at the transport ministry, Budhi Mulyawan Suyitno, said his country had made a lot of improvements in air safety standards, but failed to submit its latest safety data to the EU in time.
"Our data can show them that we have improved on every line," Suyitno told Reuters. But the EU official said Indonesian authorities initially ignored warnings of the ban and came to Brussels too late to avert it. "When they finally showed up, they even could not tell us how many planes their carriers operate."
Tourist agencies across the 27-nation EU will be obliged to inform customers that Indonesian airlines are on the blacklist if they continue to sell package tours involving their services on the Indonesian archipelago of over 17,000 islands.
Travellers who have already bought holidays involving the use of Indonesian carriers will be able to give them up and claim reimbursement, or expect travel agents to offer them an alternative, safe airline.
The Commission said that after consultations with Russia, the country had decided to ban operations of four local airlines and restrict six others. In the same way, EU member Bulgaria revoked the certificates of six small cargo carriers.
Meanwhile, a ban on most aircraft operated by Pakistan International Airlines, in force since March, will be lifted for specific Boeing 747 and Airbus 310 planes. The carrier's fleet of Boeing 777s remains authorised.
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