Lion Air gets penalized for flight delays

JAKARTA. The Transportation Ministry will impose sanctions on Lion Air, the largest low-cost airline in Indonesia, because of flight delays in many parts of the country that were reportedly caused by a pilots’ strike.

The delays had left thousands of passengers stranded in a number of airports on Tuesday morning.

"We already received the press release regarding the delays, but we have not receive any official statements yet regarding the demonstration. We are currently composing the sanction letter. They will be prohibited from opening new routes for six months," the ministry's air transportation general director Suprasetyo said on Tuesday.

About 300 pilots reportedly went on strike on Tuesday, causing the delays at major airports like Soekarno Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, Sam Ratulangi Airport in North Sulawesi, I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali and Hasanuddin International Airport in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

The sanctions are being imposed only on Lion Air, not on other airways under the Lion Group, such as Wings Air and Malindo Air.

Speaking about the strike, which was sparked by delayed payments, Suprasetyo stressed that it an international problem of the company.

"If the payments were delayed, that is their management problem. We imposed sanctions because the delay affected consumers in a bad way," he said, adding that Lion Air was cooperating with the ministry to solve its problems.

He said he appreciated that the airline resumed flights in the afternoon.

"They already paid the delay fees. For every four-hour delay, they need to pay Rp 400,000. Snacks and food were already given as compensation. Now things are almost normal," Ministry spokesman Hemi Pamuraharjo said. (Anton Hermansyah)