Adam Air plans to double Boeing 737 fleet<\/p>\n
Arijit Ghosh, Bloomberg, Bangkok<\/p>\n
Adam SkyConnection Airlines, an Indonesian budget carrier,
\naims to double its fleet as it plans to fly to international
\ndestinations such as Singapore and Australia next year, Chief
\nExecutive Adam Adhitya Suherman said.<\/p>\n
The carrier, known as Adam Air, will double its fleet of
\nBoeing Co. 737 aircraft to six by the end of this year and
\nexpects to expand it to 12 next year, Adhitya said. It flies to
\neight cities in Indonesia and also to Penang in Malaysia from the
\nIndonesian city of Medan<\/p>\n
"The domestic market is huge but we are looking to expand to
\nSingapore and Perth," Adhitya said in an interview. Adam Air is
\npartly owned by Agung Laksono, the speaker of the House of
\nRepresentatives.<\/p>\n
Adam Air wants a share of the air traffic to Bali, Indonesia's
\nmain tourist attraction. As many as 834,191 people visited Bali
\nin the January-to-July period, 58 percent more than the same
\nperiod last year. Indonesia expects tourist arrivals to the
\nSoutheast Asian nation to rise 16 percent to 5.1 million this
\nyear.<\/p>\n
Discount carriers such as Malaysia's AirAsia Bhd, Singapore
\nAirlines Ltd.'s Tiger Airways and Indonesia's Lion Air have
\nmushroomed in Southeast Asia, a region with a combined population
\nof 500 million people.<\/p>\n
The Jakarta-based Adam Air plans to fly to Perth from Bali as
\nwell as to Singapore from Bandung by next year, Adhitya said.<\/p>\n
The carrier said the six additional planes it will add to its
\nfleet next year are Boeing 737s. A Boeing 737 can seat 110 to 189
\npassengers with a maximum range of 3,140 miles to 3,630 miles and
\ncosts between $44 million to $74 million, based on the catalog
\nprice.<\/p>\n
"I see a good potential market to Denpasar, in Bali. Leisure
\ntravelers from Australia are always flying to Bali," Adhitya
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Australian tourist arrivals to Indonesia is expected to rise 7
\npercent to 442,600 by 2006 from this year, according to the
\nPacific Asia Travel Association.<\/p>\n
A bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta last
\nmonth, which killed nine people, however, may still crimp tourist
\narrivals. Foreign travelers and investors have been asked to
\navoid Indonesia, with the U.S., Australia, the U.K. and Canada
\nalerting their citizens about terrorist attacks. A bomb blast in
\n2002 in Bali killed 202 people, 88 of them Australians.<\/p>\n
"A lot depends on the perception of security," said Peter
\nHarbison, managing director of the Center for Asia Pacific
\nAviation in Sydney. Still, "Australian's aren't usually nervous
\ntravelers."<\/p>\n
Adam Air, which sells about US$4 million of tickets a month,
\nalso expects an economic expansion in the country to boost sales.
\nIndonesia's $208 billion economy is forecast to expand 4.8
\npercent this year and 5.4 percent in 2005, which would be its
\nfastest pace in nine years.<\/p>",
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