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.