Dili, August 18, 2026 (Media Democracia) – CEO of Aero Dili, Lourenço Oliveira says there is still no certainty that Aero Dili will operate Dili-Kupang flights because the aircraft has no available slot.
The Governor of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) sent an invitation to invite the CEO of Aero Dili because he intends to ask the CEO to operate Aero Dili flights from Dili to Kupang and Dili to Darwin.
“At that moment I told the Governor, our aircraft has no slot left, there’s no time left to fly here. So if we are going to fly it will have to wait until next year and if we add another aircraft then we’ll have time to fly to Kupang as well. If the Governor wants us to fly soon, I’m not able to. But you tell the Governor that in Indonesia there are 2 big airline companies, Garuda and the Lion Group. Both of them can fly Kupang-Dili and Kupang-Darwin.” said Lourenço to journalists at the Aero Dili office in Timor Plaza on Tuesday (18/08).
He said the aircraft will operate flights, but not as urgently as the Governor wants because there is not yet any bilateral agreement.
“When an aircraft is going to fly to another country, a bilateral agreement must be in place. For example, an aircraft flies here once, or Aero Dili also flies there, Citilink also flies there. If we add more destinations, we must have an agreement between the two countries.” He stated.
He informed that the information that came out recently was released by the Governor himself and they asked Aero Dili if this meeting could be made public.
“And I answered, yes you can release it, no problem. When they called me, I didn’t go alone. I went with someone from the Ministry of Transport.” He said.
He informed that Aero Dili will fly to Kupang but not as urgently as the Governor is requesting now.
“We only have 2 aircraft. How can we cover so many places? Right now we fly to China, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Australia. If we also go to Kupang, we won’t have enough time. If next year we get another aircraft, then we can fly to Kupang.” He explained.
Lourenço explained that previously even without a bilateral agreement aircraft could still operate flights. Now they have to fulfill the requirements first so they can operate flights, and so that there is equality for their aircraft and ours flying back and forth.
He said the Governor of NTT’s reason for wanting flights to the three countries is that they have already asked the relevant parties but no one has done it yet. That’s why he asked Aero Dili if it could operate to Kupang.
Since Aero Dili was established, it has operated flights to China, Indonesia, Singapore twice, Malaysia three times, and Australia twice. But when we see passenger numbers increase we will add more days.
He said the Government of Timor-Leste will definitely just wait. When Aero Dili wants to go, they must support it because it opens up our reach to more places.
Report by: Estefánia Cardoso
Photo: Estefánia Cardoso