Indonesia will suspend all domestic and international air and sea travel, with a few exceptions, in an effort to control the spread of the coronavirus, the country's Ministry of Transportation said in a statement on April 24.
The ban on air travel will take effect from Saturday April 25, allowing some pre-booked flights to go ahead, and will last until May 31. Cargo transport is exempted from the suspension. The ban on sea travel took immediate effect.
“Starting today there are no new reservations,” ministry spokesman Adita Irawati declared in the statement.
International flights will continue to operate for foreign nationals to return to their countries and for Indonesian citizens to return home. Other exceptions include travel by state officials, diplomatic representatives, and employees of international organisations.
The 30-day holy month of Ramadan began on April 23, and Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country. However, the government had already banned the holiday period’s traditional exodus from the cities to rural areas.
Indonesia currently has 39 active passenger charter carriers, 16 active scheduled carriers, and two cargo airlines, the ch-aviation fleets module shows. The country’s biggest airlines by passengers carried are the budget carrier Lion Air (JT, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) and majority state-owned Garuda Indonesia (GA, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta).
Shares in Garuda plunged 6.7% following the government's announcement, the Nikkei Asian Review reported, taking them 66.4% down compared to the end of 2019.
Indonesia's ban on travel to China, which made up 5% of the flag carrier's revenues, and Saudi Arabia suspending pilgrimages to Mecca, which accounted for 15%, have been especially hard on Garuda.
The company now faces USD1.5 billion of long-term and short-term debt maturing by the end of 2020, according to the US financial data firm FactSet, the biggest being a USD500 million bond issued in 2015 that is scheduled to mature on June 3.
