Lion Air Cancels 30 Flights per Week Due to Coronavirus

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Lion Air Group cancels 30 flights per week to China from February 30, 2020. The cancellation is done based on the Ministry of Transportation circular which instructs airline operators to close routes to and from China due to the expansion of coronavirus until an undetermined time. 

Lion Air Group Managing Director Daniel Putut said that his office was calculating the impact of the loss on this cancellation. "We are still calculating the potential loss," he said at the Parliament complex, Senayan, Jakarta, Wednesday, February 5, 2020. 

Daniel said the airline would evaluate the route and possibly conduct flight diversion to compensate losses borne by the company. 

He considered the planes would be distributed to domestic routes that had high passenger potential, such as Bali. Another possibility is that the company will divert it to super-priority destinations to encourage domestic tourism growth.

"We will push existing routes in the country. We currently have flights to 140 cities in Indonesia, so [we'll] maximize those first," he said. 

The transportation ministry has temporarily suspended flights to and from China, from February 3 until an undetermined deadline, as an effort to anticipate the new virus outbreak that is originated from China's Wuhan Province.

The policy is in line with the steps of the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise the emergency status of the coronavirus in China. 

Francisca Christy Rosana | Galuh Kurnia Ramadhani (Intern Translator)