Australia issues travel warning on Indonesia

29 March, 2007

Australia has issued a travel warning on Indonesia following the recent crash of a passenger jet in Central Java. The incident has raised serious doubts worldwide over the safety of Indonesia’s commercial carriers.

According to Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Indonesia’s Directorate-General of Civil Aviation had released last week a preliminary assessment of 48 passenger airlines, including Indonesia’s national carrier Garuda Indonesia, which found that no one of them met international safety criteria.

The Department of Foreign Affairs have advised Australians to take into account information given by Indonesia’s Directorate-General of Civil Aviation and make their travel plans accordingly.

The Indonesian assessment had found that no airline in the country fully complied with the requirements of the civil aviation safety regulations stipulated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Garuda, Merpati Nusantara, Lion Mentari Airlines and 29 other smaller carriers met minimal requirements, but certain measures are yet to be implemented.

Another 16 airlines in Indonesia, including Batavia Air, Adam Air and Kartika Airlines, were operating with minimal requirements of civil aviation safety regulations, according to the Australian travel advisory.

Airlines assessed as Category 3 are to be subject to administrative sanctions and are to be given three months’ notice to improve standards, the Australian advice added.

The Australian warning comes about three weeks after 21 people, including five Australians, died when a Garuda Airlines Boeing 747-400 overshot the runway and caught fire at Yogjakarta airport.

In Indonesia, a sprawling country consisting of over 17,000 islands, the airline industry has grown substantially after the liberalisation in 1999 triggered a price war among airlines.

Meanwhile, despite the release of the report by the Indonesian Directorate-General of Civil Aviation that exposes the poor safety standards maintained the country’s airlines, Garuda Indonesia seems to be planning for a better future. According to Emirsyah Satar, CEO of Garuda Indonesia, the carrier would buy 25 Boeing 737-800 planes. Satar said the Boeings would arrive during 2009-12 and that the new aircraft would replace the old ones in the fleet.