Expert: The state must introduce a verification mechanism for flight delays
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Saiful Anam, a legal consultant presented as an expert by the petitioners seeking a judicial review of the Aviation Law concerning flight delays, has said the state must introduce verification of flight delays by an authorised and independent body to guarantee objectivity.
“Because when carriers are given the authority to assess for themselves whether a delay is caused by operational-technical factors or weather, a manifest conflict of interest arises,” Saiful said at the tenth hearing on the judicial review of the Aviation Law at the Constitutional Court, as quoted from a court press release on Tuesday.
He continued that, since carriers will naturally tend to classify every delay under the exemption category in order to avoid compensation obligations, an objective flight delay verification mechanism is therefore necessary.
“The objectivity of proving a delay requires a neutral and authoritative presence, namely the Airport Authority or the Ministry of Transport as an independent regulator,” he said.
He stated that evidence of delays and oversight of the verification of delay times, from pushback through to take-off, must be sourced from official air traffic control records or an integrated airport authority information system that is public and cannot be manipulated by airlines.
According to him, a legal norm that entrusts the determination or assessment of whether a delay exists, or the validity of the reason for a flight delay, solely to the carrier constitutes a fundamental violation of the legal principle nemo judex in causa sua, meaning that no one may be a judge in their own cause.
When a delay occurs, he said, aviation law exists not to protect corporate profits, but to uphold the principle of utility, distributive justice, and the constitutional protection of citizens as guaranteed in Article 28D paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution.
“Without objective verification by an authorised body, provisions that leave evidence of delays to the carrier’s internal mechanisms conflict with the principle of fair legal certainty,” he explained.
He asserted that every flight delay made in the name of operational-technical or weather reasons must produce a variable delay status, or a verified delay certificate, managed and/or validated by the airport authority in real time.
“Without verification by an authorised body, a delay must be deemed negligence on the part of the carrier,” Saiful said firmly.
The petition for a judicial review of the Aviation Law concerning aircraft delays was filed by nine advocates and two law faculty students. The petitioners said they had personally experienced flight delays.
The petitioners are challenging flight delays that lack transparency regarding the actual facts behind the delay and valid evidence accessible to the public.