REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Indonesian government has temporarily frozen AirAsia's services on Surabaya-Singapore route starting Friday following the crash of its flight QZ8501 while flying the route on Sunday morning.

The Head of the Public Communication Center of the Ministry of Transportation, JA Barata, said in a written statement that the restriction on AirAsia on the Surabaya-Singapore route will be effective until the results of evaluation and investigation of the incident are produced.

Barata said, "the freeze has been imposed because PT AirAsia has broken the route agreement."

According to him, the Surabaya-Singapore route was given to PT Indonesia AirAsia for flights on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

However, PT Indonesia AirAsia used the permit to serve the route outside the set dates, including on Sundays.

"PT Indonesia AirAsia, meanwhile, never applied for a change in the operations schedule with the Directorate General of Air Transportation," he added.

Barata noted that this was a violation of the route agreement.

"Following the freezing decision, passengers who have already bought tickets must be accommodated on other flights according to regulations," he pointed out.

AirAsia QZ8501 carrying 162 passengers, including crew members, lost contact with the air traffic control on December 28 and is believed to have crashed near Karimata Strait waters, Central Kalimantan.

Until Friday, a total of 30 bodies of the crash victims have been found while efforts are underway to find the plane's fuselage.

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