Saudi Arabia Civil Aviation Authority GACA in Indonesia to assess Airline safety

Aug 4th 2007

In the latest development, Director General for Air Transportation, Budhi M. Suyitno confirmed that officials from the Saudi Arabia General Authority of Civil Aviation, GACA, arrived in Jakarta on Monday, 30 July to observe first-hand Indonesia’s air transportation conditions.

GACA officials will verify three aspects, namely air transport regulations, airlines operations, as well as airline maintenance facilities. The team will also make random checks on airlines, which airlines they will check will be up to the Saudi Arabian officials. The GACA team is in Indonesia on invitation from the Indonesian government in response to a query from GACA as to the airworthiness of Indonesian airlines, pursuant to the airline ban by the European Union. “Saudi Arabia has only questioned the accuracy of  reasons for the EU ban, so this was not a threat”, said Suyitno.

Therefore, Indonesia appreciates highly the stance taken by the Saudi Arabian government to send its team to directly verify the actual conditions of Indonesian airlines, rather than accept this from secondary sources, as was the case with the EU ban said Suyitno.

Director General Suyitno said that his office has prepared all the necessary documents for their inspection. The GACA team is expected to be in Indonesia for five days.
 
At this opportunity, Suyitno also confirmed that the government will continue with categorizing airlines. “There has been a public misunderstanding on this system” said Suyitno, the system is not a safety rating of airlines, but shows the level of compliance of airlines to meet safety standards”.