While criticizing the government’s plan to invite foreign airlines to serve domestic routes in an attempt to push down airfares in the country, aviation observer Chappy Hakim has proposed that the government instead formulate a comprehensive policy on the country’s aviation industry involving all stakeholders.

“Indonesia needs a comprehensive policy that will really bring all activities related to the aviation business under the control of the government,” the former Air Force chief of staff told a discussion in Jakarta on Wednesday.

He said the recent soaring of domestic airfares had been caused by the government’s disintegrated management of the aviation industry based on sectoral regulations that were not in harmony with one another.

All the problems emerging in the past two decades on domestic aviation, he said, were a reflection of the government’s poor national flight management, with no reference base.

“The government apparently did not involve experts in formulating regulations in different sectors, so the regulations contradict one another,” he said.

As a result, civil and military flights, for example, were not well coordinated, and civil aviation itself was not well managed, he said.

The rise in ticket prices, therefore, was just the tip of the iceberg of problems that could not be solved just by inviting foreign airlines to serve domestic routes, he added.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has expressed his intention to invite foreign airlines to serve domestic routes after a lukewarm response from domestic airlines on government intervention to lower airfares.

According to Jokowi, foreign airlines would intensify competition in the domestic market, which is dominated by two aviation groups, Garuda Indonesia and Lion Air.

Furthermore, inviting foreign airlines to serve domestic routes would be contrary to the cabotage principle of the aviation industry, which prohibits foreign airlines from serving domestic routes, Chappy said.

In response to the President’s statement, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi was quoted by kompas.com as saying on May 31 that his ministry would study the idea.

"The President has a good intention. We will study his proposal. God willing, it can be implemented," he said.

Chappy suggested that before reformulating regulations, the government should invite all stakeholders for discussions, so that it can produce rules that accommodate the interests of both the government as the regulator and the airlines as the operators.

The government should also facilitate the aviation industry with favorable policies related to taxation on the purchase of aircraft and components, fuel pricing, improvement of human resources and development of flight infrastructure, he said.

If the government adopted such measures, he continued, its interference in the arrangement of flight slots and its caps on ticket prices would be effective.

Meanwhile, minister Budi said the government could not simply accept any foreign airline wishing to enter the domestic market, as the entrants needed to meet Indonesia’s aviation industry standards.

"Each foreign airline, for instance, should first establish a company here, which should be 51 percent owned by Indonesian nationals," he said.

In addition, he said that the foreign companies would need to assure flight safety and security by participating in regular airworthiness checks conducted by the Transportation Ministry. With such a regulation, Indonesia actually has no problem with the issue of cabotage.

Susiwijono Moegiarso, secretary to the Coordinating Economic Minister, said on Monday that, starting next week, the government would evaluate Jokowi’s idea on foreign airline operations in the country, as well as the effectiveness of last month’s reduction of the airfares price ceiling. (syk)