The European Commission (EC) has announced it has removed all Indonesian airlines from its blacklist thereby allowing them to return to Europe's skies.
The EC instituted a blanket ban on all Indonesian carriers back in 2007 following a series of air crashes in Indonesia and reports of deteriorating safety standards.
However, from 2009 onwards, the bloc began removing individual carriers from the ban, including Garuda Indonesia, Airfast Indonesia, Ekspres Air, Indonesia AirAsia, Citilink, Lion Air, and Batik Air, citing their own unique safety and security oversight protocols.
"The EU Air Safety List is one of our main instruments to continuously offer the highest level of air safety to Europeans. I am particularly glad that after years of work, we are today able to clear all air carriers from Indonesia. It shows that hard work and close cooperation pay off," Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said in a statement.
According to the EC, the black list now entails 114 airlines certified in 15 countries - Afghanistan, Angola (with the exception TAAG Angola Airlines (DT, Luanda 4 De Fevereiro) which operates under restrictions and conditions), the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon (with the exception of Afrijet Business Service (J7, Libreville Leon M'Ba) and Nouvelle Air Affaires Gabon (NVS, Libreville Leon M'Ba) which operate under restrictions and conditions), Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Libya, Nepal, São Tomé & Príncipe, Sierra Leone, and Sudan - all of which are banned due to a lack of safety oversight by the aviation authorities from these states.
Five individual airlines, namely Iran Aseman Airlines, Iraqi Airways, Blue Wing Airlines (Suriname), Med-View Airline (Nigeria), and Air Zimbabwe, are also on the list based on safety concerns with regard to these airlines themselves.
