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.