My experience in Indonesia btw is that bribery and police extortion are entirely accepted if they protect the poor from the rich but highly prosecuted if it goes the other way. These are effectively mechanisms of collective social control ad not primarily by elites. In essence it is easy for Westerners to cry "corruption" and assume that the systme isn't working.
My reading is different. I think this is a demand by Indonesian regulators for a lot more money as punishment for losing the plane.
I would disagree with you, if you thought this is a form of punishment from the regulators for a lot more money. AirAsia just f*cked up, and fly without a route permit. Its just plainly wrong. AirAsia doesnt follow the rules.
Ever since our new president, Jokowi has been in office, he has been trying very hard to repair the system with each and everyone in the government to become more professional. The simple truth might be, they (transportation minister) have just known that AirAsia does these kind of practice. Changing schedules without asking permit to the authorities.
AirAsia has just endangered all their passengers on the doomed flight.
1. Insurance Coverage would be denied. I took this paragraph from the AirAsia Insurance.
Commercial flights scheduled by AirAsia Berhad, it being always understood that by AirAsia Berhad has at all times the requisite and valid licences or similar authorisations for scheduled air transportation and landing rights for fare paying passengers as issued by the relevant authorities in the country in which it operates, and that in accordance with such authorisation, maintain and publish schedules and tariffs for passenger service between named airports. In addition, departure times, transfers and destination points shall be established by reference to the Insured
Person’s Scheduled Flight ticket.
Since it does not have the appropriate authorisations (i.e. Route permit) than the insurance company can decline to pay.
2. There are regulations about preflight weather briefing that each and every pilot has to take before they fly. But AirAsia doesn't do that. They expect their pilots to download the weather forecast them self and print it out them self. Its just plainly wrong to break every rules that we have, in the name of cost efficiency.