The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called on Indonesia’s stakeholders to partner in the development of an aviation masterplan based on global standards to ensure that the country is served by an aviation industry performing at its best. IATA identified three potential elements to be addressed in the masterplan: Improving safety, ensuring capacity and a smart regulation framework.

“Indonesia’s aviation potential is huge,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO, in his keynote address to the IATA Aviation Day in Jakarta. “By 2034, it is expected to be the sixth largest market for air travel. By then some 270 million passengers are expected to fly to, from and within the country. That’s three times the size of today’s market.

“There is a big role for collective leadership among industry partners – including the government – to make the aviation sector flourish. Indonesia needs an aviation masterplan based on global standards and developed in partnership by aviation stakeholders including the government. Such a plan should set a common vision for addressing top priorities such as safety, capacity and regulation. And of course it must be followed by real actions,” Tyler added. 

Tyler singled out safety as the top agenda item for Indonesia, saying safety is aviation’s top priority and the biggest concern for the successful development of aviation in the country, pointing out it has had at least one hull loss every year since 2010.

In the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP), Indonesia was assessed as below the global average. The US Federation Aviation Administration downgraded Indonesia to Category 2 in its International Aviation Safety Assessment programme and the European Unio continues to have a ban on all but five Indonesian carriers.