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THE success of the vaccination process and vaccine distribution in Indonesia in the first quarter of 2021 is the main key for national airlines to set passenger growth targets by the end of this year.
According to the Chairperson of the Indonesia National Air Carriers Association (INACA) Denon Prawiraatmadja, said every policy issued by the government at this time is to handle the COVID-19 case immediately and not to make a deadly policy for the aviation industry.
“One of the efforts to immediately reduce the COVID-19 case is through vaccines. At present, national airlines would still wait for the effectiveness of vaccinations in reducing the spread of COVID-19. The success of vaccination will provide assurance and certainty for relevant stakeholders ranging from fuel providers, airports to navigation operators to adjust to the restructuring process that will be carried out by the airline,” he said
Denon explained that this vaccine is an important concern to look at around 2021 because it can provide a commitment to related parties. Then what vendors become business partners can do. Then with the stakeholders administering fuel, airports, navigation operators because there is a delayed payment which from March to the end of 2020 there is of course a payment problem.
Denon also concluded that the administration of vaccines from the perspective of the aviation industry is important in setting a benchmark for how long the ability of airlines to last and how they can immediately return to their performance position in 2018 and in 2019.
In addition, with the spread of the new COVID variant, it has resulted in the tightening of a number of regulations such as restrictions for foreign citizens entering Indonesia.
“The outlook is that in 2021 it can improve, it turns out that the new variant spreads even faster, so it doesn’t apply. Indeed, vaccination will have an impact on the airline’s recovery period, whether it will be delayed or will remain as previously predicted,” he added.
Likewise, Secretary General of the Indonesian National Air Carriers Association (INACA) Bayu Sutanto hopes that the prevention of the spread of COVID-19 will be better in 2021, including the provision of vaccines to effectively eliminate this pandemic. At present, the key to successful recovery depends only on maintaining health protocols and vaccinations.
Bayu Sutanto said that during the pandemic, domestic flight activities were increasingly slow, especially international routes.
“In 2021, several airlines already have legal disputes with lessors, there are delinquent fees at the airport during 2020, we did not fly at all, and flew but not much, so we cannot pay debt arrears, this is the homework for airlines to survive,” he noted.
In addition, although there are several stimulus proposals such as reducing airport costs that have been discussed many times, the realization from the government is still missing. He also acknowledged that several airlines experienced human resource problems and were forced to terminate their employment or lay off their employees.
He also regretted the current condition because flight performance took a sharp dip during the pandemic, but by 2021 the recovery was not as fast as the decline.
“From several ICAO and IATA studies, aviation can recover like 2019 in 2024. Its current recovery depends heavily on restricting the movement of people, because the transmission is person to person,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the President Director of Garuda Indonesia, Irfaniaputra, hopes that public trust in flying will increase again with the start of the vaccination process. Through that, the state-owned issuer also hopes to increase the number of passengers who have fallen. [bisnis.com/photo special]
