Indonesia to grade safety of airliners after crash

The Indonesian transport ministry will publish the safety rating of airliners operating in the country next month, a move aimed at pushing safety in the aviation industry, an official said here Tuesday.

The plan was made following the crash of an AirAsia plane last month in Indonesian waters that killed all 162 people on board.

"We will announce the safety rating of airlines in Indonesia next month. The industry must not be reclusive, and it must be transparent for big responsibility to public," Xinhua news agency quoted Indonesian Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan said.

Jonan stressed that there would be no discrimination in the move as he would ask the country's leading carrier and state-owned airliner Garuda Indonesia to be an example in this plan and best in safety.

"Whether it is the state airliner or not, I will keep announcing its safety level, It is in line with the order of the president (Joko Widodo), and the safety level in the aviation must be announced (to public)," said Jonan.

Coordination with the Indonesian National Air Carrier Association (INACA) will also be undertaken to push the transparency in operation and financing of airliners, according to the ministry.

Indonesia has paid serious attention to the safety standard of aviation as the country had suffered from a series of air accidents years ago. The European Union imposed a travel ban on many Indonesian airliners in 2007, many of them budget airliners. The ban was lifted two years later with the improvement in safety standards.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago country with a population of over 238 million and a growing middle class, is a potential market for the budget airline industry as the government plans to build air transport to connect over 17,500 islands.