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EU FLIGHT BAN ONLY TEMPORARY:
FOREIGN MINISTER
Yogyakarta - The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda said the
flight ban imposed by the European Union on Indonesian airlines was only
temporary and would not last long.
"With
consultations, it is expected that the European Union will understand
the efforts made by Indonesia in improving the flight safety of its
airlines," the Foreign Minister said after commissioning a secondary
school building in Yogyakarta on Friday (20/07).
The
school building was built at a cost of Rp5.2 billion with funds
contributed by the Foreign Ministry.
Wirajuda said the European Union was expected to review its
flight ban because the policy was taken not based on political
considerations, but on the fact that the Indonesian flight safety team
had revealed a problem in the country's aviation system.
"What
happened was there was a lack of information because the European Union
was not informed of the second report of the Indonesian Aviation Safety
team which said that national flag carrier Garuda's aircraft were
airworthy," the Foreign Minister said.
He said
the relevant parties had continued to hold consultations and the
European Union would in the next one or two weeks send a team to
Jakarta.
"The
Foreign Ministry has sent a letter asking the European Union to have a
discussion with us on the matter," Wirajuda said.
The
European Commission recently announced it was banning 51 Indonesian
airline companies from flying to its member countries as of July 6, 2007
because of flight safety concerns.
The EU
experts recommended the ban in response to a series of air accidents in
Indonesia earlier this year.
Some quarters consider the ban to be a heavy blow to Indonesian
airline companies and tourism. "Some four million European tourists
visit Indonesia every year while the number of Indonesians visiting the
continent is more than that," Gustanto M Hum, Chairman of the Tourism
Study Program of the University of North Sumatra, said recently (Antara,
21/07/07).
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