JAKARTA. Indonesia’s largest low-cost carrier Lion Air said on Sunday it had returned a loan of Rp 526.89 million (US$40,980.92), which it used to pay ticket refunds for passengers of its delayed flights, to state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura II (AP II).

“In the minutes signed between AP II, Lion Air, the Transportation Ministry and the Airport Authority Region 1, we agreed to provide Rp 4 billion worth of loans for Lion Air to cover ‘ticket refunds’ of the passengers. It used only Rp 526.89 million of the total loans provided,” AP II president director Budi Karya Sumadi said as quoted by Antara news agency at a press conference in Jakarta on Sunday.

He said it was recorded in the minutes that Lion Air was given two weeks to pay back the loan. “Not yet two weeks, they have returned the loan for the ticket refunds. The money has been transferred directly to our account today,” said Budi while showing a transfer slip from Lion Air to journalists.

He went on to say that Lion Air had paid Rp 526.93 million worth of ticket refunds for 548 passengers via ticket counters at Terminal 3 of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Friday.

“Every passenger receives around Rp 1 million, which includes Rp 300,000 in compensation and passenger service charges,” he said.

Budi said it was AP II that fully handled both the loan management and ticket refund payment processes.

Airport Authority Region I head Basuki Mardianto said the government’s decision to enable AP II to advance money for Lion Air to pay ticket refunds for its passengers was made as it was deemed the fastest solution to solve the hoards of passengers at terminals 1A, 1B and 3 of Soekarno-Hatta airport affected by flight delays since Wednesday.

“As the situation was quite critical, during which many passengers got very angry and expressed their anger by destroying facilities in the airport, we decided to make such a policy to prevent the damage from getting worse,” he said.

Editor: Hendra Gunawan