Updates on 14-1-2015: Jakarta Post – “I admitted that administrative negligence occurred when requesting the change in flight schedule, as the verbal information failed to reach the ministry,” Sunu Widyatnoko said. Sunu Widyatnoko is the director of AirAsia. For full Jakarta Post report HERE.
On 13-1-2015 it has been reported in Antara News that AirAsia had finally admitted during the hearing before the Members of the Commission V of the Indonesian House of Representatives that AirAsia was only allowed to fly four days a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
However, AirAsia Director, Sunu Widyatnoko had also said that it had “verbally proposed a correction in the flight schedule to the official at the Transportation Ministry”. See below for the full report by the Antara News.
According to the said Antara News report, AirAsia had now on record claimed to have made a verbal application to the Indonesian Transport Ministry for the change of its flight schedule. It was clear from this that AirAsia may have made the verbal application but it did not receive the necessary approval. AirAsia had no respect for any authority. Secondly, air safety is of utmost important in aviation business and any application for additional flight must be done officially and not verbally as claimed. Malaysia Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), please take note of the modus operandi.
It was unclear whether the so-called verbal application for a change or additional flight. From the press statement of Tony Fernandez below the so-called verbal application was for additional flight because he had said that AirAsia has the right to fly seven days a week from Surabaya to Singhapore. This “verbal” business is very fishy to say the least.
In Malaysia, at least we knew that AirAsia had collected Airport Taxes from passengers for almost 9 years totalling RM132.1 million and it was not handed over to the airport authority. No other airline dare to do this. Just imagine, how powerful was AirAsia.
However, when the airport tax debt was brought up in Parliament in 2008/2009 , the Badawi Government had no choice but to persuade AirAsia to pay. Of course, AirAsia was given a huge discount of 25% as “incentive” for owing it. Please read HERE.
Thank Gad, so far we have yet to hear of AirAsia making verbal application for flight schedule or waiving safety measures to the Malaysian Ministry of Transport or DCA.
Yours truly has been alerted of the above Antara news report by a regular reader and contributor, Warrior 231. Thank you Warrior 231 for alerting and sharing the information with yours truly and other readers.
The background of the developments between the Indonesian Minister of Transport and AirAsia/Tony Fernandes:
On 7-1-2015 the Indonesia Minister of Transport, Pak Ignatius Jonan, had said that Tony Fernandez has admitted to him that flight QZ8501 was not in accordance with the permit, HERE.
On the same day, Tan Sri Tony Fernandez, the CEO of AirAsia , has been quoted in his favourite newspaper the Star that he has never admitted that Indonesia AirAsia has no permit to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route, his office said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We have the right to fly Surabaya-Singapore. We had flown that schedule and had rights for seven days a week,” the statement quoted Fernandes as saying, HERE.
From the above statement in the Star, it was clear that AirAsia have been flying 7 days a week from Surabaya to Singapore and the flights on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday were UNAUTHORISED/UNLAWFUL.
The AirAsia supremo, Tony Fernandez, had publicly challenged the Indonesian Minister of Transport and announced that AirAsia had right to fly seven days a week from Surabaya to Singapore. Why AirAsia director openly defied/contradicted Tony Fernandez when testifying before Commission V of the Indonesian House of Representatives, which is equivalent to the House of Parliament in Malaysia?
Now Everyone Can See It Is Extremely Difficult To Differentiate Between SPINNING and TALKING.
For a little bit of background, please read: “Now EVERYONE CAN SEE: AIRASIA CAUGHT LYING”
Below is the Antara News report of 13-1-2015:
Jakarta (ANTARA News) – AirAsia Indonesia had verbally proposed a change in its flight schedule from Surabaya, East Java, to Singapore to the Indonesian Transportation Ministry Chief of Directorate of Air Transportation, the airlines President Director Sunu Widyatmoko stated.
“As per the initial schedule, we were allowed to fly four days a week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. But, we had verbally proposed a correction in flight schedule to the official at the Transportation Ministry,” Sunu noted during a hearing session at the parliament building with members of the Commission V of the House of Representatives.
Sunu explained that AirAsia Indonesia was initially seeking a verbal approval from the Transportation Ministry official, after which it would have officially applied for a change in flight schedule for the Surabaya-Singapore route.
“There is an administrative mistake that our official proposal did not reach the officials at the Directorate of Air Transportation. This is a correction for us,” Sunu remarked.
Earlier, Transportation Ministry Acting Director General for Air Transportation Djoko Murdjatmojo stated that the low-cost carrier Indonesia AirAsia has violated an agreed flight schedule for its Surabaya (East Java province) to Singapore route.
“Based on our observation, AirAsia does not fly in accordance with the schedule agreed with the government,” Djoko stated at a press conference.
According to Foreign Flight Permit Letter Number AU/008/30/6/DRJU/DAU issued for the year of 2014/2015, AirAsias flight services on the Surabaya to Singapore route are supposed to be on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. However, the ill-fated AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014, he pointed out.
Djoko remarked that if AirAsia wanted to change 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,” Djoko emphasized.
He noted that the Transportation Ministry will soon conduct an audit on the related authorities involved in AirAsias scheduling case. Djoko said he will revoke the flight permits of airlines that violate the agreed flight schedules.
http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/97336/airasia-indonesia-verbally-proposed-change-in-flight-schedule-ceo
