Korean Air is the latest airline to suspend its flights to and from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Previously, five Chinese airlines stopped flying to Indonesia following the Indonesian government's travel ban in February.
orean Air will suspend all flights between Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, and Incheon International Airport from Thursday to April 25 due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The airline’s station manager at Soekarno-Hatta airport, Kwang Dong, said in a statement the decision to suspend flights was made to prevent the spread of the viral disease.
“We are informing through this letter a temporary suspension of Korean Air flights due to the COVID-19 outbreak,” Kwang said as quoted by kompas.com.
Soekarno-Hatta airport spokesperson Febri Toga Simatupang confirmed the temporary change on Thursday: “We have received Korean Air’s notice on the flight suspension for the route between Seoul and Soekarno-Hatta airport.”
Read also: Airlines suspend China flights due to coronavirus outbreak
He said airport operator Angkasa Pura II ordered the Korean airline to fulfill its obligation to passengers who already bought tickets for the route.
“We demand that they announce the information to passengers immediately. They should also be ready to refund passengers,” Febri said.
Aside from Korean Air, five Chinese airlines have also suspended their flights to Indonesia following the latter’s travel warning to and from China in February. The Chinese airlines are Air China, China Airlines, China Southern, China Eastern and Xiamen Airlines.
Airport authorities estimated that Soekarno-Hatta has lost at least 90,000 passengers due to the travel ban, kompas.com reported. (gis)
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