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Jakarta. The International Air Transport Association on Monday urged the Indonesian government to invest in its aviation sector, which it said lagged far behind the country’s newfound status as one of the emerging market powers.

Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the IATA, said the country needed to spend on safety and infrastructure, such as building a Jakarta airport capable of being a regional hub and befitting the largest economy in Southeast Asia.

He said Indonesia lagged well behind its neighbors in aviation, and ridiculed the quarter-century-old Soekarno-Hatta International Airport as far past its prime.

“Soekarno-Hatta was a wonderful airport but if you see it now it could be a nice resort or a golf club. The only thing that's missing is a swimming pool,” he said. “To become a hub, Indonesia needs a big and efficient airport in order to attract airlines to use its airport.”

He stressed that the nation’s economic growth made aviation infrastructure an absolute necessity, and said Jakarta required an entirely new airport, not a revamped Soekarno-Hatta.

“Indonesia has plentiful land, unlike other countries that are having difficulties opening land for airports,” he said.

Bisignani praised the recent turnaround of flagship carrier Garuda Indonesia, the only local airline to be a member of the IATA, but said the rest of the domestic airlines had horrible safety records for the most part.

According to IATA data, there have already been three air accidents this year and five in 2009.

“I won’t say Indonesia is at the top of our safety list. Three accidents so far this year, although there were no fatalities, is a big number compared to 44 accidents globally,” he said.

He said safety was the starting point in improving the sector and opening Europe’s skies to more local carriers.

“The [EU] black list does not just affect the aviation industry, but also the reputation of the country, especially in a country that wants to play a leading role as a tourist destination,” he said.

“IATA encourages the government to again consider making IATA Operational Safety Audit a national requirement,” he added, saying this would signal the country’s commitment to adopting global best practices in the industry.

Bisignani said he expected the Asia-Pacific region to be the most lucrative for aviation in the years ahead, with a targeted profit this year of $2.2 billion boosted by strong traffic growth, compared with $1.9 billion projected for North America and Europe’s $2.8 billion of expected losses.

The Indonesia National Air Carriers Association said making the IOSA standard a national requirement would be a good step, but said the limitations of smaller carriers needed to be considered.

“The standard is good but the requirements are heavy. That could hurt small airlines because they would have to spend more on safety and maintenance,” said Tengku Burhanuddin, secretary general of Inaca.

Tengku also acknowledged that Soekarno-Hatta suffered from limited capacity, and said that the association had called on the government to add another runway to Soekarno-Hatta.