Jayapura, Jubi – The Indonesian Transportation Ministry provides subsidies of Rp 466 billion for 217 pioneering aircraft services which passed the tendering process within three years period until the end of 2015.
The Transportation Ministry Expert for Public Information Transparency, Hadi Mustofa Djuraid said the funds would be distributed to the eastern region such as Papua, which accounts for 42% of the total grants. The rest goes to Sumatera (20%), Kalimantan (16%), Sulawesi (12%), Maluku (6%), Nusa Tenggara (3%) and Java (1%). Djuraid said of 217, there are 65 new services which are in the tendering process.
In 2014, the Transportation Ministry removed eighteen pioneering aircraft services from the list for some reasons of being commercial and lack of passengers. The Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan further said after reducing 18 commercial aircraft services, the aircraft pioneering services have increased from 170 in 2014 to 217 services in 2015.
The Director General of Air Transportation, Suprasetyo said the core requirement to the airlines for winning the tender is at least to have five aircrafts and those aircrafts must pass the Law No.1/2009 on Aviation.
Meanwhile, the Lion Group is now considering the government’s offer related to pioneering aircraft services. The Director in Chief Edward Sirait told reporters in Jakarta on Monday (6/4/2015) that his office would review the opportunity by examining the location and infrastructure provided by the Transportation Ministry for the remote flight routes.
“It will depend on the condition of airport. We will review it. If it was safe for Wings Air (to be landed), we will examine whether we could deal with it,” he said.
Further, Edward said as long as the ATR aircraft could be landed safely, his office could participate in the offer. (*/rom)
