Air Transport

Indonesia's transport ministry, under enormous political pressure to improve the country's air safety, has warned it will shut down seven of the country's airlines unless they improve training and maintenance within the next three months. The carriers were singled out after the ministry developed a formula for ranking the country's airlines into three bands, writes Leithen Francis.

Those in the third (least safe) band are Adam Air, Batavia Air, Jatayu Gelang Sejahtera, Kartika, Manunggal Air Service, Transwisata and Tri MG Intra Asia Airlines, according to Indonesian news reports quoting the country's director general of air transport, Budi Mulyawan.

Adam Air is a privately owned scheduled passenger airline with a fleet of more than 20 Boeing 737s Batavia Air, another large passenger airline, operates the same types, but also two Airbus A319s Jatayu, a scheduled passenger carrier, is planning to relaunch with 737-200s, having shut down two months ago Manunggal Air Service, a passenger and cargo airline, operates Transall C-160s, a military transport type Kartika Airlines is a small scheduled passenger airline that operates 737-200s Transwisata is a charter carrier with a fleet that includes a Fokker 50, a Fokker 100 and two F28 Mk4000s Tri MG Intra Asia Airlines is primarily a cargo carrier operating 737-200Fs, but at the end of last year was planning to branch into passenger commuter operations using two 19-seat Let L-410s.

None of the major airlines made it into the top category. Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is reportedly ranked in the second. On 7 March a Garuda Boeing 737-400 overran on landing at Yogyakarta airport, killing 21 people, and on 1 January an Adam Air 737-400 crashed into the sea off Sulawesi island killing all 102 on board.