REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The airline company, Lion Air, should not resort to merely returning passengers' tickets after it postponed 277 flights following sanctions imposed by the ministry of transportation, a consumer institute has said.

"The Lion Air management should transfer the passengers' tickets to other airlines, instead of only returning the tickets purchased by them," Chairman of the Indonesian Consumers Institute (YLKI), Tulus Abadi, demanded here on Monday.

He argued that while the Lion Air's decision to postpone 277 of its flights for one month did not basically violate any rule, it should also not violate consumers' rights.

"The ministry of transportation should supervise this strictly to prevent the company from violating consumers' rights," he stressed.

The ministry of transportation has imposed a sanction on the Lion Air, freezing its flights for five days for having recently disembarked international passengers from Singapore at the domestic terminal of Soekarno Hatta Airport.

The management of Lion Air opposed the sanction by reporting the directorate general of air transportation to the police and postponed 277 of its flights for a month.

Tulus was of the view that the Lion's legal move to oppose the ministry of transportation's sanction was rather awkward.

"It is rather an anomaly. Probably this is the only case of its kind in the world where the operator is taking a stand against the regulator."

On May 10, Lion Air pilots went on strike at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport on Tuesday, leading to a delay in the low-cost carrier's flights to several regions in Indonesia.

The corporate secretary of state airport operator, Angkasa Pura I, Farid Indra Nugraha, explained in a press statement released on Tuesday that his side has been in close touch with the representatives of the Lion Air Group at the airport.

Farid claimed that his side had made efforts to ensure that the airline is able to serve the passengers despite the delay in flights.

"In response to the Lion Air pilots' strike at several airports under the purview of Angkasa Pura I, we call on the passengers to understand the conditions and be patient," he pleaded.

The strike led to a delay in Lion Air flights from Sam Ratulangi Ariport in Manado, North Sulawesi, Sultan Hasanuddin Airport in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Lombok International Airport in West Nusa Tenggara, I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali, and Adisutjipto Airport in Yogyakarta.

Public relations manager of the Lion Air Group, Andy M Saladin, denied that the pilots had gone on strike because they had not received transport allowances.

"There is no strike. The airline's operations have returned to normal," he pointed out.

Meanwhile, Lion Air President Director Edward Sirait insisted that the fact that some of the airline's pilots fell sick, coupled with an administrative problem, was what had led to flight delays.

"We, on behalf of the Lion Air Management, apologize for the inconvenience," he said.

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