EU lifts Indonesian airline ban

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Title – EU lifts Indonesian airline ban
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 14th July 2009

This is a blast from the past. Garuda Airlines was long a favourite amongst backpackers and ‘gappers’, as it offered cheap flights to Southeast Asia and on to

Australia. But things went quickly downhill after the Asian financial crisis and Indonesia’s own internal problems after the fall of the Suharto dictatorship.
Indonesia has made significant progress and despite the eventual 2007 ban (many travel companies had delisted Indonesian airlines much before this) they have improved standards to such a degree that the EU have readmitted them and removed them from the list of banned airlines.

The EU ‘black-list’ is a good starting point for anyone researching airline safety; http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air-ban/list_en.htm

For now Guruda will be flying out of the Netherlands, but that does not make it inaccessible to UK travellers and I would imagine that it will still offer ‘good value’. Any increase in competition is only good for travellers looking for cheap long haul flights.

With the recent spate of accidents including the still unexplained accidents by Air France and Yemeni airline, I also welcome the EU’s scrutiny of world airlines. It helps us make informed decisions about ‘airline safety’ around the world.

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