TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - PT Indonesia AirAsia said it will keep flying to Australia. President Director of Indonesia AirAsia, Sunu Widyatmoko, said they have two routes to Australia, the Denpasar-Darwin flight and the Denpasar-Perth flight, that have passed the ramp check done by the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).

According to Sunu, CASA also carried a ramp check following the AirAsia QZ8501 crash in Karimata Strait on December 28 last year, killing all 162 people on board.

The Transport Workers' Union of Australia (TWU) yesterday urged the Australian federal government to freeze all AirAsia flights from Indonesia to Australia following the AirAsia QZ8501 tragedy. TWU secretary Tony Sheldon said the union had sent a letter asking the Australian Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss demanding the Civil Aviation Safety Authority undertake an urgent audit over the airline's maintenance processes.

"We need to ensure that a rapidly expanding airline like AirAsia Indonesia is not cutting corners," Sheldon said as quoted by 9news.com.au.

Meanwhile, The Australian yesterday reported that CASA had conducted a ramp check Indonesia AirAsia after flight QZ8501 went missing December last year. CASA said it did not find any security problems during the inspection.

KHAIRUL ANAM