Merpati Can Fly Again under Certain Conditions: Minister
14 November 2018 20:10 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi welcomes Merpati Nusantara Airline`s plan to resume its operations. To do so, he said that the airline must meet the conditions that the state required concerning aircraft and employees procurement.
Budi Karya asked Merpati to recruit competent people because the aviation industry is so competitive that all airlines must make efforts to survive and develop.
"I have to remind that all problems of the past must be resolved well and there should be no more problems in the future,” he said in Jakarta, Wednesday, November 14.
Read: Intra Asia Corpora set to Fund State Carrier Merpati
If Merpati is permitted to fly again, Budi added, they have to use planes that are adequate to fly, “and there have to be seniors with good qualifications and better-prepared,” he said.
In the coordination meeting at the Transportation Ministry the day before, Budi Karya proposed a number of conditions Merpati has to meet if they want to resume operations. Some of these conditions include the existence of a fleet, crew and pilots as well as sound finances.
He said that aspects of safety and security are the most important. “The crew must be competent and the fleet has to be ‘healthy’,” he said.
In today's hearing, judges granted the settlement proposal for Merpati’s debt payment delay (PKPU) between Merpati Nusantara Airlines and creditors in the Surabaya District Court.
Merpati has a debt of Rp10.03 trillion, the biggest creditor is the Finance Ministry and several state-owned companies including Pertamina, Bank Mandiri, Telkom, Garuda Indonesia (Persero), and others.
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