By Adnan Hameed TWA ______ The Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia received a visit paid by the CEO of Mitra Aviation Perkasa and Perkasa Flying School of Indonesia, Septo Sudiro. His visit to Pakistan aimed to strengthen the civil aviation cooperation between Indonesia and Pakistan, including pilot training and pilot supplies.

“As far as I know, there are currently around 25 Indonesian pilots working in various Pakistani airlines. My company is able to provide highly skilled aviation workers from Indonesia to meet the needs in Pakistan, including pilots and aircraft engineers,” Septo said to the Indonesian Chargé d’Affaires, Rahmat Hindiarta and the Embassy’s Economic Team. Established in July 2013, Perkasa Flying School has an ideal training base in Indonesia located at Tunggul Wulung Airport of Cilacap, Central Java as well as Nusawiru Airport of Pangandaran, West Java. The training base accommodates ground and flight training. The Perkasa Flying School is one of the largest international pilot schools in Indonesia with a PSC - 141 - 017 pilot certificate and focuses on preparing pilot students who are ready to take on roles as commercial pilots. The Company offers a solution of the pilot possible shortage in Pakistan due to the flight boom and tougher competition among airlines at the global stage. The pilot school fee in Indonesia is considered as reasonable. Moreover, considering as the largest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia is definitely suitable for Pakistani students. “Perkasa Flying School is offering a cooperation program to Pakistani airlines to train their cadet pilot in Indonesia, through innovative financial scheme up to 50:50 that will surely create greater number of reliable pilots in Pakistan,” he added. Given its status as the largest archipelagic country in the world, Indonesia continues to improve its civil aviation sector to increasingly meet safety standards issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and other relevant aviation partners. Indonesia reached the effective implementation score of 80,34 for ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program-Continuous Monitoring Approach (USOAP-CMA). Based on this significant achievement, the President of ICAO Council awarded Indonesia the Council President Certificate on 17 May 2018. Previously on August 2016, the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) decided to put Indonesia on “Category 1” rating after significant improvement shown by the Indonesian Government on IASA Safety Audit. In addition, on June 2018, the European Commission updated the “EU Air Safety List” which cleared all airlines certified in Indonesia from the list.

Prior to his visit to Islamabad to meet his counterparts from Airblue and Serene Air, he visited Karachi to meet the Director General of Pakistan Aviation Authority (PCAA), Capt. (Retd). Saif Anjum and representative of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in Karachi. “Pakistani Airlines business should start to “Look to the East”, Septo Sudiro suggested.