Living in a densely populated so-called “megacity” such as Jakarta requires that one have infinite reserves of patience and sanity at one’s disposal. Jakarta’s infamous traffic jams are of course the worst offenders here and the city’s inhabitants and commuters lose hours of valuable productive time every week due to the interminable gridlock. Indonesia Statistics have revealed that by the end of 2014, there were some 17,523,967 registered land-transportation vehicles driving around the streets of Jakarta,[1] a figure which has been increasing at an alarming rate of 9.93% per annum since 2010.[2] Alas road construction has not kept pace with this figure and currently stands at a lowly rate of 0.01% of total road length per annum, even including the new flyovers which are currently going up around the city.[3]
 
Time is money, as the old cliché goes, and thus spending unproductive hours sitting in traffic ultimately has a negative effect on the economy. If you have the money however then there is a solution available which can slash journey times from hours to minutes, either within Jakarta, or to and from its various satellite cities.[4] We are referring of course to the helicopter, which offers both speed and flexibility, allowing passengers to enjoy short trips between business meetings, sporting events, or other important destinations.
 
Way beyond the budgets of most of Jakarta’s citizens naturally, helicopter services nevertheless do exist here, and companies such as Whitesky Aviaton, Airfast Indonesia and Uber Chopper are available to take you soaring over the city skyline.
 
This week’s edition of Indonesian Law Digest (ILD) will analyze the various issues relating to all things chopper and its discussions of helicopter-transportation businesses will cover the following topics: