KONTAN.CO.ID - JAKARTA. Indonesia’s transportation ministry has approved the operational license for new budget airline Super Air Jet, the country’s directorate general of civil aviation said in a statement on Saturday.

Super Air Jet (SAJ), which industry sources say has links to Indonesia’s biggest airline group, Lion Air Group, fulfilled all the requirements to obtain an Air Operator Certificate (AOC), the final approval needed to serve commercial flights, the civil aviation agency said.

“With the completion of all stages of certification for SAJ, SAJ is declared to have fulfilled all technical and safety requirements as an Air Operator Certificate holder,” said Novie Riyanto, Indonesia’s directorate general of civil aviation.

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The new budget airline will start with three 180-seat Airbus SE A320 planes and focus on the domestic and millennial market, the carrier’s chief executive Ari Azhari said last month.

A spokesperson from Super Air Jet was not immediately available for comment. A spokesman for privately-owned Lion Air declined to comment on the purported links to SAJ.

Indonesia, an archipelago of thousands of islands, is currently the world’s sixth largest aviation market based on capacity, according to data firm OAG.

Editor: Yudho Winarto