Batavia Air manager taken hostage by pasengers after flight cancelled

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Passengers and ticket agents of the bankrupt Batavia Air will have to wait to get their money refunded, the court-appointed trustees who are taking over the ill-fated airline said on Thursday.

Andra Reinhard Pasaribu, one of trustees who currently manages the airline, said that customers were classified as concurrent creditors, as stated by 2004 Bankruptcy Law.

Passengers were asked to keep their tickets so that they could refund them when trustees had finished all the necessary processes.

Such uncertainty has caused passengers to get very upset and even fierce across the country.

More than 300 passengers were left stranded at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport waiting for an explanation about their flights in vain.

Many passengers lost their patience and shouted, demanding the airline take responsibility, while others simply sat and even fell asleep in the terminal's lobby.

Passengers in Medan, North Sumatra, took district manager Tri Joni Siswanto hostage after their flights to Batam and Yogyakarta were cancelled. Batavia refused to refund tickets bought with cash.

Tri said the airline could do nothing to refund the tickets.

Economist Ahmad Ma'ruf of Yogyakarta Muhammadiyah University said that Batavia's bankruptcy would not disturb the national flight industry as the company only held an 11 per cent market share.

"In the long run, the government needs to issue a regulation on the standard capital that a flight company must have in order to protect consumers and promote healthy competition," Ma'ruf said.