Indonesian operators vie for Tigerair Mandala's traffic rights

Nam Air as well as Garuda Indonesia, Citilink and Lion Airlines have all submitted applications to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in the Indonesian Ministry of Transport to take over routes left vacant by Tigerair Mandala.

The Jakarta Globe reports that the ministry intends to offer up four out of Tigerair Mandala's nine remaining routes - Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta-Pekanbaru, Pekanbaru-Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta-Palembang and Jakarta-Denpasar - to local operators.

In line with local laws and regulations, the ministry can only officially begin distributing Mandala's forsaken routes 30 days after it has ceased operations.

“We haven’t decided when we will start offering the routes because most airlines choose the routes with heavy traffic. Meanwhile, we also need to make sure that the less busy ones are filled in a bid to ease the mobility of people in the regions,” Minister of Transport, Everte Ernest Mangindaan, said.

Tigerair and local equity firm, Saratoga Capital, cited heavy sustained losses in their decision to terminate Tigerair Mandala's operations on July 1.
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