The European Union will observe the safety of Indonesian airlines, following its ban to fly with Indonesian airlines and not allow the airlines to enter to its airspace, Transport Minister Jusman Syafei Jamal said on Saturday.

 

The minister said that the team was expected to arrive at the beginning of next month.

 

He said that the visit was requested by the Indonesian government.

 

"They will send a team to Indonesia. We hope they will arrive early in August," he said.

 

Documents requested by the team was already sent on Friday, said Syafei.

 

"They also asked us to send them first five kinds of documents on Indonesia's aviation. We have sent the documents on Friday," he said.

 

The minister said that the documents included progress reports on Indonesia's aviation safety, schedules on Indonesia's aviation improvement programs and reports on the latest conditions of Indonesian airline companies.

 

"They said they would send the team and fix the date of its visit after assessing the documents," Syafei quoted by Antara News Agency as saying.

 

The European Commission recently announced it was banning 51 Indonesian airline companies from flying to its member countries as of July 6, 2007, because of flight safety concerns.

 

The EU experts recommended the ban in response to a series of air accidents in Indonesia earlier this year.

 

But, Indonesia has opposed the ban, saying that all of the airlines in the country have met the minimum safety standard after its shut one airline company recently.

 

Some quarters consider the ban to be a heavy blow to the Indonesian airline companies and tourism sector.

 

"Some four million European tourists visit Indonesia every year while the number of Indonesians visiting the continent is more than that," Gustanto M Hum, chairman of the Tourism Study Program of the University of North Sumatra, said recently.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2007)