"The travel agents called on Batavia Air to refund the travel agents` deposit funds they have placed at Batavia Air," Astindo chairman Elly Hutabarat said here on Thursday.
Elly said that the deposit funds that had been transferred to Batavia air belonged to travel agents. They were not part of Batavia Air assets.
She said that the funds were deposited with Batavia Air for the issuance of tickets or flight seat reservations.
Elly said with that payment system, the operation of the airlines was actually financed by travel agents.
"The court`s decision on the bankruptcy of Batavia Air is a disaster for travel agents which are members of Astindo," she said.
Elly expressed regret that such a bankruptcy had happened several times, and it once again victimized travel agents.
She said that to prevent travel agents from becoming victims in in the future, Astindo has asked the Ministry of Transportation to regulate the placement of deposit funds with the airlines by travel agents.
"Regulations should provide that the deposit funds should be placed at an escrow account where funds could be withdrawn by travel agents anytime when an airlines stopped operating," she said.
Earlier, Batavia Air management said that it had appointed four trustees to help handle all matters related to the closing of the airlines.
"All interested parties are expected to wait for directives from the trustees," Batavia Air Public Relations Officer Elly Simanjuntak said on Wednesday.
Batavia Airlines had been declared bankrupt by the Central Jakarta District Court. The International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) had sent a request to the court with regard to the bankruptcy.
"Batavia Airlines is bankrupt," said Presiding Judge Agus Iskandar as he read the district court verdict on Wednesday.
He said Batavia Airlines had met the requirements of Law No. 37/2004 on bankruptcy.
"Batavia Airlines had met the requirements of Law No. 37/2004 on bankruptcy. Hence, Batavia Airlines has been declared bankrupt," said the Presiding Judge.
The IFLR had filed a request for the bankruptcy of Batavia Airlines because the airlines had not been able to pay its debts amounting to US$4.68 million, which matured on December 31, 2012. (A014/BSR/A014)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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