The Director of Airworthiness and Aircraft Operations in Indonesia's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DJPU), Muhammad Alwi, says the Southeast Asian nation has been given unofficial confirmation that it has been awarded Category 1 status under the US Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) programme.

Speaking to the Antara news agency, Alwi said that although the US Ambassador to Indonesia had already called to congratulate him on the feat, he was still awaiting official confirmation from Washington, expected sometime over the coming weeks.

Indonesia was demoted to Category 2 back in 2007 after it suffered a series of commercial aircraft crashes. Since then, Jakarta has worked meticulously to realign its safety and security oversights to international standards, Alwi said.

Garuda Indonesia (GA, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) has already indicated its willingness to resume direct flights to the United States in the event the country's Category 1 status is restored. In June, CEO Arif Wibowo said Garuda was looking at using its B777-300(ER)s to start flights to Los Angeles Int'l and New York JFK using Tokyo Narita for a technical stop.