FAA Lifts Nine-Year Ban on Indonesian Airlines

For the past nine years, airlines from Indonesia have been conspicuously absent on the tarmacs of U.S. airports—but all of that is about to change.
Today, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that after a series of assessments, it has determined that Indonesia now complies with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety standards, and has been granted a Category 1 safety rating—an upgrade from the Category 2 rating the country has carried since April 2007. Airlines have to hold a Category 1 rating to be able to fly to the United States as well as operate codeshare flights with U.S. airlines.

The news is a major boon to Garuda Indonesia, the state-owned national airline, which—according to the Wall Street Journal—is looking to launch service to New York-JFK or Los Angeles-LAX as early as next year. The category upgrade could also mean increased codeshare cooperation between Garuda Indonesia and SkyTeam partner Delta.

According to the FAA, over the past nine years, Indonesia lacked “laws or regulations necessary to oversee air carriers in accordance with minimum international standards,” and was deficient in a number of areas, including technical expertise and inspection procedures. Those deficiencies showed. In the years leading up to the 2007 ban, a number of Indonesian airliners experienced fatal crashes: In 2004, a Lion Air McDonnell Douglas MD-82 overran the runway in Surakarta, killing 25 people; in 2005, a Mandala Airlines plane stalled and crashed into a residential neighborhood in Medan, Sumatra, killing 149; in 2007 a Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737-400 burst into flames upon landing in Yogyakarta, killing 21. More recently, in December 2014, an Indonesia AirAsia aircraft crashed into the Java Sea on its way from Surabaya to Singapore, killing all 162 people on board. Overall, Indonesia has a fatal air-crash rate of more than three times the global average, according to Bloomberg.

Mohammad Alwi, director of aviation at the Indonesian Ministry of Transport told the Wall Street Journal that the FAA carried out two technical reviews and one final audit since September 2012, with a final audit done earlier this year. He said that the ministry and local carriers have answered a number of queries from the FAA, including those around “safety oversight functions.” “It wasn’t easy, it was a struggle,” Alwi said. Earlier this month, a new terminal at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport opened, in an effort to decrease congestion at the country's biggest airport. With the new safety rating, Indonesia has to now wait for final DOT and FAA approval—expected to be granted soon—before commencing flights between Indonesia and the U.S.

Garuda Indonesia will now be looking to expand its operations to the United States, after receiving the go-ahead to fly to the European Union in 2009. The airline is growing rapidly and was rated the world’s “Most Loved Airline” by Skytrax with a satisfaction rating of 85 percent: In customer reviews, fliers especially commended Garuda's cabin crew and quality of in-flight meals. Three other Indonesian airlines—Lion Air, Batik Air, and Garuda’s low-cost carrier Citilink—had E.U. bans that were also in place since 2007 lifted in June of this year.

(culled from www.cntraveler.com)