Airport Operators to Join Airlines in Taking Blame for Flight Delays
Jakarta. Indonesia’s Transportation Ministry is putting together a new regulation to punish airport operators for causing delays to scheduled commercial flights, to complement an earlier regulation targeted at airlines.
Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan said over the weekend that the government did not have any rules in place to impose punitive measures against state-owned airport operators Angkasa Pura I and Angkasa Pura II for any flight delays that they might be responsible for.
He said the new regulation would be issued soon.
"Regulations have been issued fast since I became minister," said Jonan, the former chief executive of state railway operator Kereta Api Indonesia.
Under a previous regulation issued this year, the Transportation Ministry sets out a list of sanctions that commercial airlines, both local and international, are liable to come under for any delays while operating in the country. They range from warning letters to a reduction of flight routes.
Tengku Burhanudin, the secretary general of the Indonesia National Air Carriers Association (INACA), has proposed the ministry also publicly name the parties responsible for causing flight delays.
"With no certainty about who is responsible for delays, it is typically the airlines who bear the brunt of the customers’ anger," he said.
In February, passengers of Lion Air, the country’s biggest budget carrier, were enraged after they being forced to wait up to 24 hours due to a series of nationwide delays that went largely unexplained by the airline.
The ministry duly sanctioned the airline, but it was never explained in detail whether Angkasa Pura II, which operates Soekarno Hatta International Airport, among others, had any part in the delay.
Investor Daily
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