JAKARTA - INDONESIA has warned of possible retaliation against the European Union's ban on all Indonesian airlines if the bloc refuses to hold talks on the issue.
Measures could include a ban on Indonesian citizens flying with European airlines, Transport Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal told reporters on Wednesday.
He said the blanket ban, announced by the European Commission last week, was unfair.
'We regret their decision as the EU never gave us a chance for a dialogue. The President (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) has asked me to look for ways to fairly retaliate against them.'
The EU announced last Thursday that it would ban all 51 Indonesian airlines, including national carrier Garuda, from its airspace, after a committee of air safety experts expressed concerns over recent air crashes in Indonesia and the failure of local authorities to provide adequate safety assurances.
The ban takes effect today.
As no Indonesian carrier currently flies to Europe, the ban is effectively a warning to the 27-nation EU's consumers and travel agencies not to use Indonesian airlines.
Mr Jusman said his ministry, under instructions from President Yudhoyono, would explain to the EU what the government is doing to improve the safety of its aviation industry.
If the EU refused to rescind the ban, Mr Jusman said, the government would not rule out retaliatory measures.
But he stressed that would be the last option.
'We have to avoid such actions. My point is, there has to be international cooperation. There has to be room for dialogue.'
Indonesia receives up to 800,000 European visitors during the peak summer period from July to September, and the ban is expected to hit its tourism sector, which has still not fully recovered from a series of bomb attacks in recent years.
Travel agencies reported that 1,000 Europeans had cancelled their holiday plans as of Monday. More were expected to follow as the summer holiday period got under way.
However, the country received a boost yesterday from the chief of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
The organisation's president, Mr Roberto Kobeh Gonzales, said Indonesia is taking the right steps to improve aviation safety.
'Indonesia is taking the right measures and they are in the right way,' he told reporters after inspecting an aircraft maintenance site run by Garuda Indonesia near Jakarta.
He said the fact that the Garuda maintenance centre had many international customers showed it was in good shape.
The EU move might have resulted from a lack of information, Mr Gonzales added, urging Indonesia to negotiate to have the ban lifted.
'Maybe it's a problem of information and I hope with more information and more transparency, we know what you are doing.'
Indonesia signed on Monday an agreement with ICAO to improve air safety, committing itself to implementing safety management based on international standards.
In March, a Garuda Indonesia plane with 140 people on board overshot the runway in Yogyakarta and burst into flames, killing 21 people. And in January, a plane belonging to budget carrier Adam Air crashed into the sea off Sulawesi island. All 102 on board are presumed dead.
