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EU blacklists Garuda PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ron B   
Wednesday, 11 July 2007

Garuda Crash in Yogya
Garuda Crash in Yogya
Another setback for tourism in Bali - the European Union has added all Inonesian airlines to its backlist.  This literally means none can get permission to fly to EU countries - and none currently do fly there since Garuda dropped its services a few years back.  But more importantly it is advice to EU citizens to avoid these airlines.  In effect, they are advised to arrive using a non-Inodnesia airlines and then move around Indonesia by road, rail or boat.  The Garuda crash this year in Yogyakarta (pictured) may have been a trigger for this ban  On June 28, the BBC reported this as follows.

All Indonesian airlines including national carrier Garuda are to be banned from the European Union. An updated blacklist of unsafe airlines also includes operators from Bulgaria, Moldova, Angola and Ukraine. Indonesian carriers do not currently fly to Europe, but the ban serves as a warning to consumers not to use these airlines elsewhere in the world. "European citizens should avoid flying with these carriers," an EU official said. "They are really unsafe." The last version of the blacklist, published in March, featured 91 airlines, 74 of them from Africa, and most of the rest from Kyrgyzstan. The new list includes all 51 carriers from Indonesia, eight from Moldova, six from Bulgaria, Angolan carrier TAAG Angola Airlines and Volare Aviation from Ukraine. It will be formally approved on 4 July and published the next day. 

The black list has been updated as predicted and can be found here.  As you can see there are many airlines but the only international carrier is Garuda, and the significant domestic carriers all have 3 letter "airline designations".  The 2nd column with "unknown" is for air operator certificate number - and apparently Indonesia's failure to supply this info is part of the problem.  The weekly Bali Update newsletter reported on this ban and said:

The far-reaching decision to generalize and label all Indonesian carriers as "unsafe" apparently was done by the "Eurocrats" in Brussels at a distance without the aid of a direct audit. Jean Breteche, the EU Ambassador to Jakarta, admitted as much in the Jakarta Post this week, saying that the decision to impose "blacklisting" was done after the Indonesian aviation authorities failed to respond to two letters inviting them to air consultations. This statement suggests that the current aviation warning has more to do with pique than any concrete information on the true status of Indonesian aviation.

On July 9, Al Jazeera reported that this ban will be reviewed - they said:

Experts from the European Union will head to Jakarta to review a ban prohibiting 51 Indonesian airlines from entering European airspace due to safety concerns.
The team is expected to check the safety standards of the affected airlines before considering whether or not to lift the ban which took effect on Friday.
Although none of the affected airlines - including national carrier Garuda - fly to Europe, the ban requires tour agencies to warn customers that Indonesian airlines are unsafe when selling related packages.
Indonesian aviation officials were unhappy over the decision, saying the ban was ill-informed as it failed to take into account recent improvements to airline safety.
The EU "blacklist" is updated every three months based on reports from the US Federal Aviation Administration and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), as well as reports from individual countries.

On July 9 Al Jazeera reported that the ban will be reviewed and possibly lifted at the next review of the list in 3 months.  They said:

Experts from the European Union will head to Jakarta to review a ban prohibiting 51 Indonesian airlines from entering European airspace due to safety concerns.  The team is expected to check the safety standards of the affected airlines before considering whether or not to lift the ban which took effect on Friday.

Although none of the affected airlines - including national carrier Garuda - fly to Europe, the ban requires tour agencies to warn customers that Indonesian airlines are unsafe when selling related packages.

 

Last Updated ( Monday, 03 December 2007 )
 
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