Aceh's first airline suspended over possible mismanagement

Aceh's first airline suspended over possible mismanagement

Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

Seulawah Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) Air, Aceh's first
airline which was launched by President Megawati Soekarnoputri in
September last year, has ceased to operate, underpinning
criticism that the airline was poorly managed.

Seulawah NAD Air suspended its flights as of Friday last week,
several ticket sellers confirmed on Wednesday.

"We don't know when NAD will start flying again," a staffer at
PT Seulawah NAD Air ticket sales office, Muhammad R, was quoted
as saying by Antara.

Several ticket sellers surveyed by The Jakarta Post on Tuesday
were also in the dark about Seulawah NAD Air's future.

"However, we have received information that the airline would
operate again once its management has been restructured," said
Muhammad.

The airline's commissioner, Usman Budiman, could not be
reached for comment despite repeated calls to his office on
Tuesday and Wednesday. The seven-month-old airline has no
spokesperson.

Seuwalah NAD Air is one of several pet projects the local
government had begun to develop in response to the greater
autonomy it has enjoyed since the regional autonomy laws took
effect in 2001.

The airline project, however, gained little support from
locals.

Critics have expressed their disapproval of the Acehnese
government for getting its priorities wrong, amid the widespread
economic hardships resulting from over two decades of a
secessionist war waged by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Owned by the local government, the airline received Rp 6
billion (US$674,000) from the provincial budget last year. It is
slated to receive another Rp 4 billion this year.

"Seulawah Air was inaugurated by the president, so why is it
not being managed seriously?" said Aceh Council deputy speaker,
Bahrum Manyak.

Coordinator of the Solidarity of the Anti-Corruption Society
Kamal Farza said the local government should have simply asked
for existing airlines to serve the Aceh route.

The public officials who were appointed to run Seuwalah NAD
Air were not business managers, he said. "No wonder the outcome
is such a mess."

Another pet project, the Ladia Galaska road project, was
canceled last week amid protests from environmentalists and the
European Union's promise to help fund the construction of an
airport instead.

The planned road would have sped up economic development in
isolated areas in western and eastern Aceh, but a section of the
road would have cut through Leuser National Park, a fact which
prompted protests from environmentalists.

The park is home to a number of rare wildlife species, and the
presence of a road would encourage illegal logging activities
inside the park.

Southeast Aceh regent Armen Desky said the European Union had,
through the Leuser Park Management Unit, promised Rp 21.3 billion
to help build an airport in his regency.

He said the fund was meant to compensate the cancellation of
the Ladia Galaska road project.