Indonesian Transport Ministry announced on Thursday ratings of airlines which put some of them in category of holding potential for threatening safety of aviation.

 

Director General of the Ministry's aviation department Budhi Mulyawan Suyitno told a press conference that all the airlines must improve their safety standard within three months or their operation would be frozen, licenses would be revoked should they fail to meet the safety requirements in six months.

 

"If within three months they could not make improvement, we will freeze their operation, and if they still can not meet it, we will revoke their licenses," he said.

 

Besides, the Ministry would have grounded all three airplanes belonging to a small airline due to its incompetence for operation, said Mulyawan.

 

The director said for the category of scheduled-airlines with more than 20 seat passengers or scheduled-cargo, seven airlines out of 20 were in condition of potential to decrease the safety of aviation should there be no improvement, and 13 others had met the minimum standard of safety but still there were some items that had not been met.

 

The director said that none of the airlines had fully complied with the standard of safety.

 

"Seven out of 20 operators are in category three (potential for decreasing the safety of aviation). And none of them are in category one (fully met the safety requirements)," Mulyawan said.

 

AdamSky Connection Airline, Metro Batavia, Kartika Airline, Trans Wisata Air, Tri MG Intra Asia Airline, Manunggal Air Service, and Jatayu Gelang Sejahtera, had met the minimum criteria for civil aviation safety, but they are yet to comply with some of the criteria and are potentially to disturb the safety, said Mulyawan.

 

The team of experts set up by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in January following the disappearance of Adam Air passenger plane with 102 people on board and a series of other plane and ferry accidents, found low safety standard of aviation in the country.

 

"The accidents are more because of the violation by both operators and regulators," he told Xinhua.

 

On the finding of the experts, Director Mulyawan declined to comment on whether the seven airlines are having low safety standard.

 

Earlier this month, a Garuda Indonesia plane-200 with 140 people on board overshot the runway in Yogyakarta province and burst into flames, killing 21 people including five Australians.

 

Transport Minister Hatta Rajasa said that the audit on the aviation aimed at giving clear information to the public the condition of the country's airlines.

 

"As long as the audit is carried out transparently, I think public can understand," he said.

 

"The spirit (of the rating) is to revamp our aviation, it is not to disqualify," said Rajasa.

 

For airlines in category of scheduled-small airplane with less than 20 seat passengers or chartered-medium or big aircraft, the director said that 14 out of 34 airlines were classified as holding potential to disturb the safety standard, and six of the 14 were not active.

 

Eight of the 14 which are still active are PT Gemania Trisila Air, Dirgantara Air Service, Kura Kura Aviation, Asco Nusa Air, Atlas Deltasatya, Aasi Pudjiastuti, Dabi Air Nusantara,Survei Udara Penas, and the non-active six others are Air Transport Services, Helizona, Sayap Garuda Indah, Aviasi Uptaraksa Indonesia, Alfa Trans Dirgantara, Prodexim, according to the transport ministry.

 

The director said that none of the 34 airlines fully meet all the requirements for civil aviation safety.

 

The deregulation in aviation in 2001 triggered the emergence of budget airline with low safety standard.

 

Indonesia is also grappling with problems in other modes of transportation, as two serious ferry accidents have occurred recently.

 

Plane is a favorable transport means, connecting about 170,000 islands sprawling across the world's fourth most populous nation with 120 million people.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2007)