The battle between airport authorities and problem plagued airline Lion Air continues to get more heated. The Ministry of Transportation recently issued heavy sanctions on the airline due to serious operational errors, including massive delays caused by a pilots’ strike and international flight passengers being dropped off by a Lion Air shuttle at a domestic terminal, allowing them to bypass immigration. In retaliation, the company reported the Transport Ministry’s director general of air transportation, Suprasetyo, to National Police’s Criminal Investigation Unit on Monday for abusing his power in issuing the sanctions.
That probably did not go over well with other members of Indonesia’s airport authority, with one official suggesting that the operational licenses for all Lion Group airlines may be revoked if the company did not shape up fast.
“If Lion cannot fix its services and management, its permits can be revoked by the Minister of Transportation,” Herson, the Head of Soekarno-Hatta Region 1 Airport Authority, told Kompas Monday night.
Herson said Lion Group had often ignored warnings and even reprimands from the Region 1 Airport Authority. They also failed to implement recommendations on how to improve their services.
He said that one example of Lion Group’s major operational problems was the poor communication system used by its ground staff. Instead of having a centralized system or using walkie talkies, their staff simply called each other one by one using mobile phones. And the company doesn’t even pay for their employees’ phone credit.
We’re sure that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Lion Air’s problems. But as much as we write about the company’s troubles, we wouldn’t wish unemployment on the group’s 27,000 staff members, so we hope the management can stop blaming others and focus on getting their act together.
