Air Safety

The Australian and Indonesian Ministers of Transport have come together to sign an agreement for AUD 24 million. This assistance package is presumably to get Indonesia up to speed on air safety. The Australian Minister, Anthony Albanese, made it clear that Australia has an interest in air safety in Indonesia and that this was brought home in the Garuda crash at Adi Sucipto airport in Yogyakarta last March.

The assistance package will see up to 40 Indonesian air safety inspectors trained in Australia to international standards. I am trying to track down the details of the package to see if it includes anything else because 24 million big uns for 40 instructors works out to be in the "bloody expensive" category for training. I have checked it out and it does include other training such as search and rescue, air traffic management, and transport safety investigations. The package is for three years.

In any event it is a good idea to train-up Indonesian air safety inspectors to international standards, particularly when low cost carriers like Lion Air are trying to force their way into the Australian market.