Indonesia airline boom raises new safety questions

Manila Bulletin
May 15, 2012
By Kay Johnson

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Dozens of fledgling airlines that have sprung up to serve Indonesia’s island-hopping new middle class could jeopardize the archipelago’s recently improved safety reputation, aviation experts say.

The trend threatens to erode higher standards established during what one analyst called a “tremendous amount of soul searching” by major carriers and the government after 2007, when frequent crashes prompted the European Union to ban all Indonesian airlines from landing on its runways for two years.

With growth rates of nearly 20 percent per year, Indonesia is one of Asia’s most rapidly expanding airline markets, but the country is struggling to provide qualified pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers and updated airport technology to ensure safety. And with so many new, small carriers, it’s hard to monitor all their standards.

“We are not ready for this boom,” said Ruth Simatupang, an Indonesian aviation consultant and former safety investigator.

Indonesia’s two largest airlines — national carrier Garuda and rapidly expanding boutique airline Lion Air — haven’t had a fatal accident in five years and eight years, respectively. But small passenger and cargo carriers plus military aircraft have kept the frequency of crashes to about once every two months, according to statistics compiled by the Aviation Safety Network.

Just how fast Indonesia’s airline market is growing came under a spotlight with Wednesday’s deadly crash of a Sukhoi Superjet-100 plane during a demonstration flight. While both the plane and the pilot were Russian, the flight was packed with representatives of local airlines that the manufacturer hoped would purchase the jetliner.

The number of air passengers in Indonesia jumped by 10 million in a year to 53 million in 2010, according to the government statistics agency, and the upward trend continued last year.

“Infrastructure hasn’t kept pace with the growth of the airlines,” said Shukor Yusof, an aviation analyst in Singapore for Standard & Poors.

He said the government needs to “spend a vast amount of money” to expand safety monitoring for the new carriers and invest in airport runways and technology.