AWAIR says Singapore using it as bargaining chip

AWAIR says Singapore using it as bargaining chip

Agence France-Presse, Jakarta

The Indonesian arm of budget carrier AirAsia says it was forced
to cancel a proposed route because the Singapore government was
using it as a bargaining chip in talks with Jakarta over aviation
links.

AWAIR, which launched as a cut-price domestic operator last
year, had hoped to begin operating flights to Singapore but
dropped the plan last month citing a lack of cooperation from the
city state's air authorities.

On Thursday, however, the Civil Aviation Authority of
Singapore said that the airline's application to fly to Singapore
had been rejected because of an unspecified "restriction" imposed
by Jakarta.

AWAIR in turn claims its plan was turned down because the CAAS
wanted to use the operator as leverage in a bilateral air service
agreement between the two countries.

"This is clearly a government-to-government matter and the
CAAS should not have used AWAIR as a bargaining chip to gain
better positioning with the Indonesian government," AWAIR
president Sendjaja Widjaja said in a statement.

Widjaja accused Singapore of trying to safeguard the market
share of its own carriers, including Singapore Airlines and low-
cost carrier Valuair.

"We believe that it is not so much related to the issue of
planned flights by low-cost carriers between the two countries
but simply the protectionist stance taken by CAAS to protect
Singapore's own fledgling start-ups," Widjaja said.

"This is clearly inconsistent with CAAS statement that it
welcomes all airlines, including AWAIR, to operate to Singapore."

The CAAS said in its statement that its decision on AWAIR was
purely due to Indonesian restrictions but officials have refused
to elaborate on what these were.

It said Indonesian aviation authorities announced in late
January their "intention to introduce a new restriction on
services by low-cost carriers to/from certain points in
Indonesia.

"Accordingly, AWAIR's planned operation to Singapore has been
affected by this new development."