Monday 9 December 2019

Sriwijaya Air and NAM Air may cease operations

Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
                  / KUCINTA SETIA





In Indonesia, there were rumours that Sriwijaya Air of Indonesia may cease operations. The rumours stemmed from the dissemination of a copy of an internal email to all employees of Sriwijaya Air on 25 September 2019, which contained two messages. The first piece of information stated that Sriwijaya Air will stop selling air tickets from 27 September 2019, and the timing for when the tickets will resume for sale is undecided. The second piece of information is about the possible suspension of operations of Sriwijaya Air and its wholly-owned subsidiary NAM Air.

Jefferson Irwin Jauwena, CEO of Sriwijaya Air Group, has denied the truthfulness of the email. However, he has acknowledged that Sriwijaya Air Group is in dispute with Garuda Indonesia Group management over the addition of Garuda Indonesia logo to the aircraft of Sriwijaya Air and its wholly-owned subsidiary NAM Air.



In November 2018, Garuda Indonesia management took over the operations of Sriwijaya Air and its subsidiary NAM Air through its subsidiary Citilink. As a result of this joint venture agreement, Sriwijaya Air has added the Garuda Indonesia eagle logo to its aircraft.

On 26 September 2019, Garuda Indonesia formally announced that it will remove its eagle logo from the aircraft operated by Sriwijaya Air Group because of ongoing disputes between the two parties.

Garuda Indonesia spokesman M. Ikhsan Rosan said, "Removing our eagle logo on aircraft operated by Sriwijaya Air is part of our effort to protect our brand in Indonesia, especially considering that since the beginning of the dispute, the services provided by Sriwijaya Air Group have consistently failed to meet our standards. "

It is estimated that the total debt of Sriwijaya Air has reached 43.5 billion Rupiah. Sriwijaya Air Group's maintenance supplier has threatened to unload five CFM engines from Sriwijaya Air's aircraft in service if it did not receive arrears in the near future. The ground handling company of Sriwijaya Air and NAM Air has also threatened to stop business cooperation with Sriwijaya Air Group.



If there is no settlement to the management dispute, Sriwijaya Air and NAM Air may cease operations at the same time.

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