I'm wondering whether this issue about not Air Asia not having a permit to fly the Surabaya - Singapore route on a Sunday is just a distraction by the government to point the finger at Air Asia for any blame. I've flown on QZ8501 before on a Sunday in August of this year and here is my booking itinerary to prove it (with my identity removed, of course.)
If Air Asia have been scheduling this flight on a Sunday from 3 months ago then why all of a sudden, their 'permit' to fly on that day has been revoked? It's interesting that Air Asia has been silent on this issue since it was brought up by the minister for transport. In Indonesia, you do not dare challenge the government if you still wish to continue to operate in the future.
As you can see, this flight has always been scheduled to depart at 0520 in the morning. I don't fly for Air Asia, but I did fly for an Indonesian airline based in Surabaya up until mid 2014 and I know for a fact that Surabaya airport does not officially open until 0600.
You can check this yourself by going to the
Indoavis website and typing in the airport code for Surabaya WARR. The Tower, ATIS and Ground does not officially open until 2300 UTC. I've mentioned before on this thread that I've had early morning departures from Surabaya (0600 LT) with a reporting time of 0500 and getting weather data directly from the briefing office that early in the morning was not always possible. Our flight operations officers usually download the weather info online from the
BMKG website which was legal. This is the way that many airlines operate in Indonesia and when on turn-arounds, those dispatcher briefings are always done in the aircraft before departure. So what the minister is
suggesting here in this article is nothing new, but just typical of knee jerk actions to make it appear to the public that the government is busy doing something useful.
