Indonesia Warns Airlines To Comply With Flight Rules After Jetstar Incident
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On December 28, 2022, the Indonesian air traffic control forced Jetstar flight JQ35 between Melbourne International Airport (MEL) and Denpasar International Airport (DPS) to divert back to Melbourne after four hours in the air for not complying with the country’s rules. Jetstar had to change the aircraft employed on this flight prior to departure from an Airbus A321neo to a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner but did not get the necessary approval from the Indonesian authorities.
Obey the rules
Following the incident, which sparked outrage against the airline and the Indonesian government, Sandiaga Uno, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy in Indonesia, warned airlines to comply with flight rules when flying to the country.
As reported by the local media outlet Detik Travel, Sandiaga Ugo said Jetstar is currently reviewing the incident and will implement the necessary procedures to prevent this from happening again. The Minister “also reminds airlines to comply with applicable procedures and rules. Rules must be enforced for our common safety.”
What happened?
The incident took place between December 27 and 28. Jetstar, the low-cost Australian carrier owned by Qantas, was supposed to operate flight JQ35 between Melbourne and Denpasar, flying hundreds of passengers to Bali in time for the holidays.
This flight is typically covered by employing an Airbus A321neo with the capacity to carry 232 passengers in a one class cabin. Nonetheless, the airline opted to deploy a larger aircraft on this particular date, allowing it to carry more passengers. In the last few weeks of 2022, Jetstar was slammed on social media for having many delays and cancellations throughout its operation.
Jetstar decided to employ a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, registration VH-VKE, to operate the route. This aircraft has the capacity to carry 335 passengers in a two-class configuration and is one of the eleven Dreamliners Jetstar operates.
The plane departed from Tullamarine airport at around 23:00, after a delay of about five hours. After four hours in the air, covering four-fifths of the trip, the crew made a U-turn returning to Melbourne. In the end, people onboard Jetstar’s Boeing 787 spent around eight hours on the plane only to return to the Australian city.
What did Jetstar say?
At first, a spokesperson of the Australian budget carrier said that due to a miscommunication, “the swap to a larger aircraft had not been approved by the local regulator in Indonesia.” Then, Ingrid Just, the carrier’s head of Communications and Corporate Affairs, said that the company did not communicate the change to the authorities in Indonesia, “so that was an internal mistake on our part.” The Indonesian media outlet Coconuts Bali reported on this. Jetstar added that it had rebooked passengers to other flights. Some ended up flying with the airline’s rival Virgin Australia.
Jetstar offers 64 weekly flights to Indonesia as of January 2023, per Cirium. The airline exclusively flies to Denpasar from seven Australian cities, Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. The route Perth-Denpasar has the largest number of flights with three daily.
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Source: Detik Travel, Coconuts Bali.
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