Lonely Flight Due To Corona, The Minister Of Transportation Promises To Give Subsidies To Airlines

JAKARTA - Minister of Transportation (Menhub) Budi Karya Sumadi said the government would provide direct subsidies to airlines to reduce losses amid the outbreak of the corona virus.

"The government will provide subsidies. Mrs. Sri Mulyani (Minister of Finance) has agreed. Later it will announce that there will be subsidies from the government, perhaps directly to airline operators, perhaps where for tourist purposes," said Minister of Transportation Budi Karya, Monday 17 February.

In addition, the Minister of Transportation also appealed to airports and airlines to provide discounts to passengers. In this way, it is hoped that the domestic tourism industry will be excited again.

"So that our enthusiasm to fill the spaces left by Chinese tourists can be overcome," he said.

He acknowledged that qualitatively the implementation of the policy of temporary suspension of flights to and from all destinations in the territory of China had a negative impact on the aviation industry in Indonesia.

However, he believes that the problem will be resolved soon with direct subsidies from the government which are targeted to take effect within one or two days.

"It will be announced later and God willing, it will be valid in 1-2 days so that we can make it easier at a lower price," said Budi.

Previously, the Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) decided to delay flights to and from all destinations in China, excluding Hong Kong and Macau, until a later time limit. The postponement takes effect from Wednesday, February 5 2020 at 00.00 WIB.

This decision is in connection with the development of the corona virus outbreak recently following the increase in the scale of the epidemic of the outbreak and the global emergency status set by the World Health Organization or WHO and in accordance with President Joko Widodo's direction.