Govt Temporarily Halts Indonesia-China Commercial Flights
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3 February 2020 21:08 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Complying with the World Health Organization’s recommendations, the Indonesian government has decided to temporarily close all commercial flights from and to China in an attempt to contain the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.
As a replacement, the Transportation Ministry notified all air carriers to divert to another alternative destination in the South Asia area.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi explained the detour was meant to sustain the flight industry’s operations following the flight closure.
“There are two alternate massive destinations in Asia such as India, Pakistan and Nepal that have yet to maximize their connectivity, like Australia,” said the Transportation Minister in Monday’s press conference.
However, he elaborated that the plan had not been discussed in detail and would call for further meetings together with the directorate-general of air transport and air carriers. He also requested the directorate-general to handle the issue regarding refunds for passengers who already booked flights to China.
As for sea transports, the minister has ordered strict monitoring of Chinese ships that harbored in Indonesia and announced that harbors were already equipped with the necessary tools to detect possible coronavirus cases.
ANTARA
