Minister denies barring foreign budget airlines

Minister denies barring foreign budget airlines

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has denied that it is restricting foreign budget
airlines from flying to the four major cities in the country,
asking the airlines to first make use of the landing rights for
other cities that have already been issued.

"We have never barred foreign low-cost airlines from flying in
our skies but we must talk to the country, whose budget airlines
plan to penetrate the local market," Minister of Transportation
Hatta Radjasa said after Monday's limited Cabinet meeting at the
Presidential Office.

Hatta said Indonesia expected Singapore's budget airlines to
fly to Manado, Biak and Makassar in the eastern part of Indonesia
as the government already granted landing rights to the low-cost
carriers.

"We have granted them the landing rights but to date they have
not yet flown there. Now, they want (to get landing rights in
major cities in Indonesia). We're OK with that, but (they should)
fly to Manado, Biak and Makassar first," he said, adding those
cities were also popular tourist destinations.

Last week, Singapore's Transportation Minister Yeo Cheow Tong
urged Indonesia to review its policy restricting low-cost
carriers from flying to Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya and Denpasar and
suggested Indonesia put economic interests first rather than
protecting local airlines.

Singapore will send a delegation on Wednesday to have a
meeting with transportation ministry officials here to discuss
the issue. The two countries had talks in January that were
inconclusive.

In the January talks, Singapore asked Indonesia to add seat
capacity for airports in Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya and Denpasar,
to implement the open sky policy and to allow Singaporean low
cost carriers to gain landing rights in Yogyakarta, Semarang and
Bandung.

"We definitely reject the open sky proposal as it will
threaten our airlines," said Hatta, adding that the Indonesian
National Air Carriers Association (INACA) has asked him not to
grant new licenses to foreign budget carriers flying to the four
cities.

The minister also said Indonesia had filed a complaint with
Singapore over its rejection of landing rights for the country's
budget airlines AWAIR in the neighboring country.

However, he asserted that the AWAIR case was not the reason
for the government to issue a policy restricting foreign low-cost
carriers in gaining lending rights in major cities in Indonesia.