By Xinhua,
Jakarta : Indonesia and Greece reinforced their bilateral air service agreement Tuesday despite the fact that the European Union has yet to lift its entry ban against Indonesian airlines.
“We agreed today to continue the bilateral air service agreement our two countries initialed on June 2, 2006,” director general of civil aviation Budhi Suyitno was quoted by the national Antara news agency as saying.
The air service agreement was signed by Suyitno and Greek Ambassador to Indonesia Charalambos Christopoulos.
Suyitno said the agreement would be enriched further in next meetings where both sides would discuss arrangements on flight rights, assignment of airlines, flight safety regulations, tariffs and flight routes.
“In essence, the airlines of both nations may conduct direct flights to the two countries,” he said.
Suyitno also hailed the courage of Greece to sign the agreement even though Indonesia was still banned from flying in European airspace.
Indonesia, he said, “prefers to have bilateral agreements with individual European Union member countries” than with the EU as a grouping.
Indonesia had previously concluded similar agreements with the Netherlands, France and Germany.