The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has
upgraded the safety rating for Indonesia's aviation industry, clearing the way
for Indonesian carriers to establish U.S. service and codeshare with U.S.
carriers. Since 2007, the FAA had rated Indonesia a Category 2 country, meaning
it regarded its aviation regulations as deficient. The FAA based the upgrade to
Category 1 on its assessment of Indonesia's Directorate General of Civil
Aviation in March. The European Commission had issued a similar ban on
Indonesian carriers around the same time, though it lifted
the ban on four area carriers—including Indonesia's national airline,
Garuda Indonesia—a few years later and more recently had lifted the ban on
other Indonesian carriers. Garuda now is considering adding service to New York
or Los Angeles, according to The Wall
Street Journal.