Air Price War Putting Safety at Risk: Indonesia

Everybody no doubt has fears the plane they are travelling in is going to crash or malfunction and send the machine spiralling into oblivion. It is a natural thought albeit a fleeting one. In today's world however safety is paramount for all airlines. Or is it?.

Air traffic over Denpasar has become quite dense over the last decade and the airport has done a splendid job in coping with this situation by increasing facilities and new runways. But it is not the airport that I worry about, nor other airports within the archipelago. It is the airline companies that are in a bidding war to get bums on seats and save money at the cost of air safety that worries me.

Admittedly most International airlines have an excellent track record as far as serving their aircraft are concerned but what of the domestic carriers?. A Business News report looked at just that.

The number of airline companies flying the nation's skies has increased dramatically here during the past five years and so too industry experts say have air accidents. Deregulation of the local industry which began in 1998 has led to many low-cost carriers taking on established airlines to grab a share of the country's lucrative budget segment.

It has also been cheaper for airliners to buy and lease aircraft since the 2001 World Trade Center attack when aircraft manufacturers lowered costs to bring the international industry out of a slump. However rising international fuel costs mean the 28 airliners currently operating here are now competing in a cut-throat market where profit margins are often razor thin.

Most airline companies have changed their business strategies to survive by lowering their ticket prices and boosting efficiencies in other areas. But fighting a continual price war has led to worries that airline companies are cutting corners on safety, accusations that the airlines have strenuously denied.

However a safety investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board, Mochammad Haryoko, believes the price war is indirectly influencing flight safety. Companies were continuing to maintain their aircraft because they had to do legally he said.

However Mochammad worried that decreased training for pilots and crew and the longer hours they were having to work could lead to an increase in human error which caused accidents.
"Usually accidents are caused by lack of knowledge on the part of pilots and technicians and we shouldn't blame them (the pilots and technicians) because their companies have reduced their training programs. They are supposed to get two weeks of training every few months but now they are only receiving one week" he said.

An aviation law expert, Martano, agreed. With the current level of training "employee knowledge will never be enough" he said.

Meanwhile Lion Air public relations manager Hasyim Arshal Alhabsi said safety standards and pilot training were top priorities for the airline. "For Lion Air, maintenance, security and operational aspects such as maintaining pilot's license are a must" he said.

Lion Air saved its money by cutting non-essential services, he said.

"For instance we do not provide food or beverages on board short flights."

Hasyim said the company also planned to cut operational costs by moving to an exclusively online ticketing system.

Air Asia, the Malaysia based no-frills airline has increased efficiencies by removing the seat numbers from tickets. This first-in first-serve policy often leads to passengers scrambling for the best seats on the aircraft.

Indonesian National Carriers Association secretary-general Tengku Burhanuddin said airlines had to maintain standards of safety and service if they wanted to continue to attract customers.

"There are many airlines right now selling cheap tickets. But if they provide bad services including allowing off-schedule flights, they could be abandoned by customers" he said.