Indonesia cancels nine airline AOCs following safety audit
Indonesia has suspended the air operator’s certificate (AOC) of one well-known commercial airline and the AOCs of eight lesser known players that operated small regional aircraft.
Directorate General of Air Communications (DGAC) director of air certification office, Yurlis Hasibuan, says the AOC of Jatayu Gelang Sejahtera “has been revoked effective today”.
Jatayu, which used to be one of Indonesia’s major passenger airlines, as of August last year stopped operating but Hasibuan says the airline’s owners were planning to resume operations using one Boeing 737-200 for passenger services from Medan, on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, to Penang in Malaysia.
The DGAC revoked its AOC because it only had one aircraft, the requirement in Indonesia is that airlines must have at least two aircraft, and it “was lacking in pilots and human resources”, says Hasibuan.
He adds, the 737-200 was old and needed to undergo a ‘C-check’ which would have cost $120,000.
While Jatayu is the most prominent airline to lose its AOC, because it was planning to operate 150-seat aircraft; Hasibuan says the DGAC also suspended some “charter and commuter” airlines that operate aircraft seating less than 30-passengers.
News reports in Indonesia - quoting from a DGAC statement - say eight airlines, operating aircraft 30-seats or less, have just lost AOCs.
The reports list the airlines as: Germania Trisila Air, PT SMAC, PT Kua-Kua Aviation, PT Atlas Deltasatya, Survei Udara Penas, Air Transport Services, PT Helizona and PT Sayap Garuda Indah.
Hasibuan at the DGAC says his department is responsible for carrying out the airline safety audits that ultimately determine whether an airline’s AOC is suspended.
He says the safety audits are quarterly and the June audit revealed Adam Air and Garuda Indonesia have improved since the March audit.
The audits cover “20 criteria including whether the airline has developed [better] safety and human resources”, says Hasibuan.
“Garuda’s safety improved because they have [better human] resources and training.”
“Adam Air’s safety improved because they improved the culture” within the organisation and “hired a safety consultant from America” called GHS Aviation.
He says Garuda aims to pass the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) in August and “Adam Air also plans to have IATA IOSA after they complete with the safety consultant from America.”
Hasibuan adds, the DGAC has been encouraging airlines in Indonesia to buy flight monitoring equipment and software from companies such as Canada’s Flightscape.
The AOCs that have just been cancelled occurred after the June audit, while the four airline AOCs cancelled earlier this year occurred after the March audit.
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Indonesia has shut down four airlines and grounded five others with the potential of similar licence revocations for failing to meet safety standards.

The largest company to lose its licence is Jatayu Gelang Sejahtera. The other companies are all small airlines operating only aircraft with a passenger capacity of fewer than thirty, and are Aviasi Upataraksa, Alfa Trans Dirgantara and Prodexim. The companies that were grounded pending either improvements or licence revokation are Germania Trisila Air, Atlas Delta Setia, Survey Udara Penas, Kura-kura Aviation and SMAC, all of which also operate only aircraft with under-30 passenger capacities. They have three months to improve, or their licences will be revoked.

Jatayu had already ceased operations in August, but had intended to restart with a 150-seat Boeing 737. The licence was revoked because the state requires at least two aircraft to be commercially operated and because of the fact that it "was lacking in pilots and human resources". Also, the age of the jetliner meant that it would require a test called a 'C-Check' before it could begin commercial services, at a cost of $120,000.

The action comes as the result of a number of air crashes, namely the Adam Air Flight 574 disaster in which 102 people were killed, and the Adam Air Flight 172 accident, in which a plane snapped in half during a hard landing, but managed to hold together, thus preventing any serious injuries. As a result, all 54 of Indonesia's airlines were given a safety rating, with a level-1 rating meaning no action was needed, a level-2 rating meaning the airline needed to make some improvements, and a level-3 rating requiring that the airline be shut down unless improvements were made within three months. Most airlines received a level-2 rating, while none received the top rating. Adam Air was among the airlines to receive the level-3 rating, but was upgraded to tier 2 at the same time as the groundings.

Meanwhile, state-owned Garuda Indonesia is now the only airline to have a type-1 rating, despite the fatal crash of Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 in March. According to the Indonesian Transport Ministry's Director General for Aviation Budi Mulyawan Suyitno, Garuda now satisfied 84 percent of civil aviation standards.

The ratings have been based on such criteria as surveillance, ramp checks, personnel, department safety, number of accidents and number of serious incidents, according to the BBC. Meanwhile, ''Flight Global'' is reporting that, according to Directorate General of Air Communications (DGAC) director of air certification office, Yurlis Hasibuan “20 criteria including whether the airline has developed better safety and human resources” are checked.