The Singapore Commentator

Indonesian budget carrier AWAIR, the Indonesian arm of Malaysian budget airline AirAsia, has been in the news lately. First, it had its planned flight between Singapore and Jakarta cancelled after a delay in approval by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore. Now, it seems that the airline is considering seeking compensation from the Singapore government.

AWAir To Seek Compensation From Singapore
AWAir, a unit of Malaysia’s budget carrier AirAsia, will seek compensation from the Singapore government for blocking the Indonesia-based airline’s flights to the city-state from Jakarta, AirAsia said on Tuesday.

“We have suffered financial loss and should be compensated. We are looking at all possible avenues,” AirAsia’s executive director, Kamaruddin Meranum, said. He did not rule out the possibility of legal action. “We have not gone to that stage yet,” he added...

AWAir has dropped plans for flights between Indonesia and Singapore after failing to secure landing rights from the wealthy city-state... Kamaruddin said... “I strongly feel this is a case of protectionism by the Singapore government”...

In Singapore, CAAS officials were not immediately available for comment...

Not for the first time in this saga, the CAAS has shown itself to be not very keen on explaining its position. In the meantime, the bad press on it is piling up. Note how The Star Online reported this — the CAAS side of the story was hardly mentioned — and how the story was subsequently picked up by Forbes.com.