P

rivately owned Batavia Air has become the first airline to pay compensation of Rp 300,000 (US$32.8) to passengers for a flight delay of more than four hours as required by the new regulation issued by the Transportation Ministry recently, a ministry official said.

“We have just received a report on Monday that Batavia Air delayed their Palangkaraya-Surabaya flight on Jan. 2 for more than four hours,” the ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan told The Jakarta Post over the phone. “So the airline has to pay compensation of Rp 300,000 per passenger,” he added.

Bambang said that as stipulated in the regulation, the airline had given a voucher to each passenger which could be cashed in any of the airline’s branch offices in the country within a month of issue.

“This regulation is aimed at protecting customers and to make airlines more disciplined,” he added.

The regulation on airline compensation payments became effective on Jan. 1, 2012. The regulation issued on Aug. 8, 2011, was supposed to be enforced on Nov. 8, 2011, but was delayed because most of the airlines said that they were not ready for it.

Under the regulation, a four-hour delay will lead to an air carrier paying Rp 300,000 compensation to each passenger.

The airline spokeswoman Elly Simanjuntak confirmed the flight delay. She said that the Palangkaraya - Surabaya flight number Y6374 was delayed for more than four hours due to operational problems.

“The flight was carrying 136 adult passengers, 4 children and 4 babies, “ Elly said.

The plane was supposed to take off from Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan at 4:35 pm local time.

Indonesian Consumer Protection Agency chairman Sudaryatmo has criticized the new penalty system for failing to factor in the duration of flights in assessing the penalty amounts.

“The compensation should be proportional to the distance and the duration of the flight,” he said.