AirAsia to resume flights from Surabaya to two major Malaysian cities

Low-cost carrier AirAsia Indonesia will soon resume flights from Surabaya, East Java, to the Malaysian cities of Kuala Lumpur and Johor Baru once they were temporarily stopped on April 1 amid the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the two countries, an AirAsia official has said.

AirAsia Indonesia made a decision to reopen the flights from Surabaya to the Malaysian cities on May 18, carrying out a decline in the amount of new COVID-19 cases in the neighboring country, the airline’s president director Veranita Yosephine said on Monday.

“Kuala Lumpur has demonstrated a positive trend about the spread of COVID-19, and for that reason we decided to reopen our flights to Malaysia. However, we’ll continue to review our decision and maintain our health and wellness standards,” she said throughout a virtual press conference.

AirAsia Indonesia has suspended all scheduled flights since April 1 because of too little passengers as the federal government appealed to the general public to stay at home and avoid travel. The government officially prohibited flights on April 24 to and from the country’s major cities within the emergency measures implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

To generate income, Indonesian airlines including AirAsia Indonesia have shifted to cargo and chartered flight services that remain permitted by the Transportation Ministry.

“Currently, we are just utilizing 10 of our 28 airplanes. We’re partnering with AirAsia Group’s cargo business company Teleport to perform the cargo operation,” she said.

Although the airline has had the opportunity to shift its procedure from passenger to cargo services, AirAsia, much like other airlines, continues to be struggling to keep its cashflow.

Indonesian airlines are struggling to survive amid the COVID-19 pandemic, having booked combined earnings losses of Rp 207 billion (US$13.4 million) by April 15, according to Finance Ministry data.

To keep the business afloat, Veranita said the company had taken numerous cost-cutting measures such as for example employee wage cuts and airplane lease renegotiations and was also seeking new sources of capital.

“We’re currently still looking of which sources of capital we're able to explore. To take action, we also need permission from the shareholders,” she said.

Veranita said AirAsia would fully adhere to the Transportation Ministry’s regulation and the government-regulated health protocols for international flights, such as for example mandatory make use of masks and a health document requirement.

“We will implement the health protocols set by the federal government and can require health documents [for passengers],” she said.

She added that the airline would continue monitoring developments in the COVID-19 pandemic in both countries, and may shut down the flight routes if there is a spike in new cases.

The amount of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Indonesia has risen steadily with the most recent Health Ministry data recording 395 new confirmed cases on Monday, an increase of 349 new cases from the previous day.

In neighboring Malaysia, the trend in new COVID-19 cases has displayed signs of plateauing, with the country’s Health Ministry reporting 55 new confirmed cases and no deaths on Monday, down from 122 new cases and two deaths on Sunday, according to local media The Star.