JAKARTA (AFP) — The European Union's decision to extend a flight ban on all Indonesian airlines for safety reasons could be politically motivated, a foreign ministry spokesman said Friday.
The European Commission and the EU's Air Safety Committee on Thursday unanimously rejected a request by Indonesian airlines to be taken off the region's blacklist of unsafe airlines.
"The way we see it, the EU always puts their actions (in terms of) technicality issues. But we question if there are political motivations behind the decision," ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told AFP.
The EU found three key airlines that had applied for a "fast track" lift of the ban, including flag-carrier Garuda Indonesia, could not be confirmed as safe enough for European skies, despite concerted efforts to improve safety.
In maintaining the ban on all 51 Indonesian airlines, the EU said Indonesia had not introduced an efficient safety oversight regime and that safety gains had not yet been assessed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
Indonesia had been hoping to have the bans lifted on at least four airlines by the end of July.
"We are disappointed with the prolonging of the ban," Faizasyah said. "We've done some improvements so we do hope that those actions taken could be considered."
The ban was imposed on Indonesian airlines last year after a string of deadly crashes in the archipelago, which is heavily reliant on air links.
An Adam Air plane crashed into the sea off Indonesia's Sulawesi island in January 2007 due to pilot error, killing everyone on board.
Two months later, a Garuda jet burst into flames on landing in Central Java, killing 21 people.
The pilot of that plane was charged with negligence and "deliberately" causing damage to the aircraft in court on Thursday, and could face up to life in prison.
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