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President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked the transportation
minister Wednesday to impose punitive sanctions on airlines that
neglected passenger safety in their eagerness to cut fares.
"Just because they want to sell cheap tickets doesn't mean they are
entitled to neglect passenger safety," Yudhoyono said after
inaugurating the recently completed expansion of Juanda Airport in
Sidoarjo, East Java.
During the event, which was also attended by Transportation Minister
Hatta Radjasa, State Minister for State Enterprises Sugiharto and East
Java Governor Imam Utomo, Yudhoyono called on the Transportation
Ministry to take immediate action against negligent airlines.
In his speech, Yudhoyono also urged the state minister for state
enterprises to assist ailing state-owned airlines Garuda Indonesia and
Merpati so as to enable them to compete with private-sector airlines,
which not only operated newer aircraft but also offered dramatically
lower fares.
Regarding the Juanda Airport expansion, the President expressed his
gratitude to the Japanese government, which had extended a 27.2 billion
yen (about US$232 million) loan for the project through the Japan Bank
for International Cooperation.
The expansion has increased the area of the airport to 750 hectares
from 390 hectares previously.
Juanda Airport, one of the country's international airports, has
flights to Europe, the Middle East, Australia and a number of Asian
countries, and is Indonesia's second busiest airport after
Sukarno-Hatta International Airport.
Hatta said that his ministry was set to propose another extension to
the airport as the latest extension was only sufficient to handle six
million passengers annually, despite the fact that some 8.2 million
passengers used the airport in 2005.
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