Govt Persists to Halt Flights to China Amid Coronavirus Crisis
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4 February 2020 22:33 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government will continue to temporarily suspend bilateral trades and briefly halt flights to China following the novel coronavirus outbreak originating from the country’s province of Wuhan.
This comes after the Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Xiao Qian complained about Indonesia’s decision which he deems an “overreaction.”
Indonesian Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said that what the government has done follows other countries; “What we are doing is implementing the same policies as other countries. We have actually been extremely careful to [implement them],” he said today, Feb. 4, at the Bogor Presidential Palace.
The temporary suspension is set to be implemented on Wednesday, February 4, at 00:00.
Moreover, Budi Karya said the government is yet to fully calculate the economic losses that might emerge due to this policy as their records suggest Chinese flight passengers annually amounts to 2.1 million. The same goes for Indonesian tourists to China.
The potential losses, said Budi Karya, will be discussed in a number of meetings with air carriers. An alternate plan is to divert the commercial flights initially from China to other South Asian countries.
DEWI NURITA
