JAKARTA. Privately owned Batavia Air suspects a business monopoly is behind the decision of the Religious Affairs Ministry to place flag carrier Garuda Indonesia as the winner of a tender to once again fly haj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, an executive says.

"This is not the first time we’ve proposed the service and not won," commercial director Sukirno Sukarna said on Friday, adding the airlines had tried in the past several years to win the haj transportation tender.

Previously, the ministry has announced Garuda and Saudi Airlines as the tender winners with the rights to carry haj pilgrims across the country to Saudi Arabia this year.

Garuda was given rights to carry 54 percent of haj pilgrims while the other 46 percent was given to Saudi Airlines.

The ministry's haj and umrah (minor haj) director general Slamet Riyanto said Batavia Air did not win the tender because it did not meet some of the requirements.

“One of those is that they did not have landing permits exclusively for the haj at King Abdul Aziz airport," Slamet said.

Batavia Air has only secured landing permits for tourists and business travelers and it currently serves the Jakarta-Jeddah route daily with its Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

Sukirno said that the airline was planning to meet immediately with ministry officials to further discuss the matter.

According to him, one of the reasons the government did not name Batavia as the winner was that the airline was not ready to provide enough aircraft to transport pilgrims.

While in fact, he said, Bank Bukopin had fully committed to providing US$1.3 million of loans to lease aircraft for haj flights.

“We are ready to provide the fleet to fly the pilgrims," he added.

Moreover, he said that Batavia did not win the tender because airlines were required to hold the IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit) certificate to transport pilgrims.

"But we have secured an ISO certificate that guarantees our service and safety. That is the same," he said.

However, according to Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan, IOSA and ISO were completely different things.

Bambang said that an IOSA was an internationally recognized certificate on safety and accepted evaluation systems, designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline, while an ISO only guaranteed a good command of corporate management.

Last year, Garuda Indonesia operated 14 wide-body aircraft to fly Indonesian pilgrims to perform the haj in Mecca, comprising Boeing 747, Boeing 767, Airbus A330-300, and A330-200 jets that were chartered from Europe and the US.

Garuda has served haj pilgrims since 1956, according to president director Emirsyah Satar. (The Jakarta Post)

Editor: Edy Can