The EU is banning all Indonesian carriers as from Sunday. I wonder if the Australian Govt will show similar courage by imposing a similar ban in the interests of the Australian travelling public? The following article appeared in todays The Australian:
EU bans Garuda on safety grounds
GARUDA and the other 50 Indonesian airlines will be banned from flying to the European Union from next week after EU air-safety experts deemed them to be unsafe.
The decision comes after four recent crashes in Indonesia, including one in Yogyakarta in March that killed 21 people, including five Australians.
An EU official said Indonesian authorities had failed to provide adequate safety assurances.
The Indonesian Government announced on Monday that Garuda and AdamAir, which lost a Boeing 737-400 passenger jet on New Year's Day, had had their safety ratings upgraded after a three-month government safety audit.
Under European rules, passengers must be informed if an airline is on the list of banned carriers and can demand reimbursement or an alternative carrier for tickets bought in Europe for flights that do not enter EU skies.
"Once more, the EU black list will prove an essential tool ... to prevent unsafe airlines from flying to Europe and to inform passengers travelling worldwide," EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said.
The European air safety experts deemed the ban to be necessary after finding "serious" failings in maintenance, operating, certification and administrative standards, an EU official said on condition of anonymity.
Indonesian authorities also left repeated European requests for information unanswered until just before the experts met on Wednesday. Even then, they could not answer basic questions such as how many aircraft Indonesian carriers had, another EU official said.