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MINISTER of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi said that the temporary closure policy for the Indonesia-China flight path poses a risk to the airlines business.
“This is a business risk for airlines, instead airlines should ‘care’ for consumers. Meanwhile, regarding the public who have purchased tickets, I conveyed the Ministry of Transportation immediately hold talks with airlines,” he said.
He added, we will have a meeting with Airline, after that there will be something concrete. Basically we ask Airlines to also care for consumers. I also said that the government could not confirm the time limit for the temporary closure of flights.
“We are concerned about the incident, and we are carrying out caution. So, the airport closure process is carried out after the Ministry of Health gets recommendations from WHO (World Health Organization),” he explained.
Then, he continued, the recommendation from WHO was reported to the President to be decided together with the Ministry. We report to the president, in a limited meeting, to decide on Wednesday (5/2) at 00.00, there will be a delay until an uncertain time.
He added that caution also included logistical aspects, one of which was decided not to allow live animals from entering or leaving Indonesian territory. Logistics will continue, export-import will also remain unobstructed. But there are records, no live animals may come or go.
Previously, the Ministry of Transportation decided to postpone flights to / from all destinations in the People’s Republic of China/Mainland China, excluding Hong Kong and Macau, until a deadline to be determined later. The delay is valid from Wednesday, 5 February 2020 at 00.00 WIB.
The decision was related to the recent development of the Corona virus outbreak following an increase in the scale of the Corona virus epidemic and the status of a global emergency determined by the World Health Organization or WHO and in accordance with the direction of the President of the Republic of Indonesia at the Limited Meeting today. [antaranews/photo special]
