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JAKARTA. State-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II is planning to take legal action against airline company Lion Group following the latter’s plan to take over the operatorship at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta.
As previously reported, Lion Group and the Air Force’s cooperative, Inkopau, formed a joint venture in 2004, in which the airline controls an 80 percent stake and the remainder is owned by the cooperative.
The 21-hectare plot of land at the airport was owned by the Air Force and Lion Group had secured a 25-year contract to operate it. This agreement became effective in 2006, according to Lion Group.
AP II spokesperson Achmad Syahir said on Thursday that Lion Group had filed a lawsuit against Inkopau in 2010 demanding its right to operate the airport and asking the Air Force and AP II to immediately clear the area.
The group won the lawsuit in the East Jakarta District Court.
AP II later filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, considering that part of the airport to be acquired by Lion was owned by the state airport operator.
The court, however, rejected the appeal in July 2014.
“We haven’t received the document from the Supreme Court, but we have no other choice but to take legal action,” Achmad told The Jakarta Post over the phone.
Achmad said that Transportation Ministry Regulation No. 171/1985 stated that the right to operate Halim was in the hands of AP II.
He said that in 1992, the government had handed over the airport state asset, including the terminal, runway and apron area, to AP II.
“The government has stated the asset belongs to AP II and we still have the right to operate the airport up until now,” he said.
Following the verdict by the Supreme Court, Lion Group assigned state-owned construction company PT Adhi Karya to develop Halim into a modern international airport with a capacity of 12 million passengers per year.
Work on the Rp 5 trillion (US$436 million) airport expansion project will start in November on the existing terminal, which was only recently renovated by AP II.
The airport previously served as a non-commercial airport for state visits or military exercises. Only in January this year did Halim begin commercial operations, with Garuda Indonesia’s subsidiary, low-cost carrier Citilink, being the first commercial airline to arrive and depart from the airport.
Halim would be transformed into an international airport for full-service airlines only, so Citilink would have to adjust, according to Lion Group’s general affairs director Edward Sirait.
Responding to the news, Citilink president director Arif Wibowo said that the he had not acknowledged the details of the agreement between the Air Force and the Lion Group.
“We have not been informed regarding the plan. We will let the government decide the matter,” Arif said. “We are only implementing the command given by the government to operate at Halim,” he said. (Nadya Natahadibrata)
