EU ban is costing us millions, says Garuda
JAKARTA –Garuda Indonesia claims to be losing US$9 million a year as a result of the European Union’s (EU) blacklist of Indonesian aviation.
Quoted in Bali Update (www.balidiscovery.com) Emirsyah Satar, CEO of Garuda, says that his airline has lost “between US$750,000 and US$1.5 a month” since the ban was introduced in July 2007.
Although Garuda does not fly to Europe, the ban is impacting negatively on Indonesian domestic flights which can’t be sold or booked by many European travel agents and the inability of Garuda to enter into code-sharing agreements with European carriers while the blacklisting remains in place.
Indonesia is hopeful that the recent passage of a new aviation law and the appointment of a new director general of Civil Aviation will pave the way for a possible lifting of the aviation ban in June 2009.
In the latest move to clean up its aviation sector, Indonesia will shut down all airlines that do not have at least 10 planes by 2012, a Transportation Ministry official says.
The new regulation is part of efforts to improve the country’s safety record following a string of deadly accidents including a Garuda Indonesia plane crash at Yogyakarta airport in March 2007 that killed 21 people, including five Australians.
Ian Jarrett
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