BRUSSELS – Every airline in Indonesia has been banned from flying to Europe after a series of fatal crashes.
The move, covering 51 registered airlines, is designed to raise awareness of Indonesia’s poor safety standards in the run-up to the summer holidays.
The Times newspaper says that although none of Indonesia’s airlines currently has scheduled flights to the EU, holidaymakers are being told to think twice about booking a cheap local flight when hopping between the country’s many islands, including the popular destination of Bali.
An EU official said: “European citizens should avoid flying with these carriers. They are really unsafe.” Indonesia’s national carrier, Garuda, stopped flying to Europe this year but the blacklisting by the European Commission will hamper its plans to resume flights to Amsterdam.
EU travel agencies selling package tours involving carriers based in Indonesia are required to inform customers that the nation’s airlines are blacklisted.
The ban flies in the face of an Indonesian government reported which this week cleared almost all the country’s airlines to continue flying after a safety audit in the wake of recent disasters.
The national carrier, Garuda Indonesia, was promoted to the top safety category, three months after one of its planes crashed, killing 21 people.
-by Ian Jarrett
