In the same year, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) audits spotted 121 loopholes in the Indonesian air safety oversight system, which led in part to the FAA as well as the European Union downgrading the safety status and banned Indonesian airlines from flying to the United States and Europe, respectively.
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The Indonesian flight carrier, Garuda Indonesia, is targeting NY and Los Angeles as its flight route destinations after Indonesia passed the flight safety standard of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“This is an achievement we’ve been waiting for since 2007”, Suprasetyo, Director General for Air Transport at the ministry, told reporters in Jakarta.
For the past nine years, airlines from Indonesia have been conspicuously absent on the tarmacs of US airports-but all of that is about to change.
The higher rating holds better prospects for Garuda, which returned to profit a year ago, as it is allowed to add lucrative routes to North America.
It chose to lift the restriction after a safety assessment earlier this year “resulted in positive findings”, the statement said.
“Well make our flight schedule convenient for the people and thus win the markets trust”, he added.
Among efforts to improve its rating, Indonesia opened a new terminal at its main airport in Jakarta this month to ease congestion and has also added structures and equipment to bolster airport safety.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Monday morning notified Indonesia’s Transportation Ministry that the Southeast Asian country’s aviation safety status had been upgraded from Category 2 to Category 1.
FAA said in an August 15 statement that Indonesia now “complies with [ICAO] safety standards and has been granted a Category 1 rating …”
According to the FAA, “A Category 2 International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) rating means that the country either lacks laws or regulations necessary to oversee air carriers in accordance with minimum international standards, or its civil aviation authority – a body equivalent to the FAA for aviation safety matters – is deficient in one or more areas, such as technical expertise, trained personnel, record-keeping, or inspection procedures”.
Crashes have continued since 2007, including the loss of 162 lives aboard an AirAsia flight in late 2014.
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This article was written by Fathiya Dahrul and Harry Suhartono from Bloomberg and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
