The AirAsia plane that crashed off Indonesia was flying on an unauthorised schedule, the country’s transport ministry said on Saturday, adding it had now frozen the airline’s permission to fly the route....
...“It violated the route permit given, the schedule given, that’s the problem,” he told AFP. “AirAsia’s permit for the route has been frozen because it violated the route permit given.”
He said the permit would be frozen until investigations were completed.
A statement from transport ministry spokesman JA Barata said AirAsia was not permitted to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on Sundays and had not asked to change its schedule.
It was unclear how the airliner had been able to fly without the necessary authorisation.