AirAsia denies violating agreed flight schedule

JAKARTA. AirAsia was permitted to operate on the Surabaya-Singapore route in accordance with the flight schedule agreed by Indonesian and Singaporean flight authorities, the airline's CEO Tony Fernandes said on Wednesday.

"We have the right to operate on the Surabaya-Singapore route seven times a week. What happened is an administrative problem. We appreciate the Indonesian Transportation Ministry's step of evaluating the coordination between the airport authority and flight slot authority to avoid misunderstandings in the future," Fernandes said.

Earlier, the Transportation Ministry's acting director general for air transportation Djoko Murdjatmojo had said that AirAsia had violated the agreed flight schedule from Surabaya to Singapore.

"Based on our observation, AirAsia did not fly in accordance with the schedule agreed with the government," Djoko said at a press conference.

According to the foreign flight permit letter No. AU/008/30/6/DRJU/DAU issued for the year 2014/2015, AirAsia is authorized to operate flights on the Surabaya-Singapore route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. However, the AirAsia flight QZ8501 that crashed flew on Sunday morning.

Djoko said that if AirAsia wanted to alter its flight schedule, it should have sent an official proposal to the Directorate General for Air Transportation.

"We never received any official letter from AirAsia requesting a change in its flight schedule," he said.

AirAsia flight QZ8501 disappeared on Dec. 28, en route from Surabaya to Singapore, with 162 people on board. They comprised 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, a Briton, a Singaporean, a Malaysian and the copilot who was French.

The plane is believed to have crashed in the Java Sea near the Karimata Strait, some 95 nautical miles from Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan.

The search for the victims and the plane's black box is being coordinated by the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) and also involves the military, police and the Transportation Ministry as well as teams from Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, the United States, Japan, China, South Korea, India and Russia.

The search and rescue team has found 39 bodies and some aircraft wreckage. The black box is yet to be located. The search operation has often been hindered by bad weather at the crash location.