Airplane passenger volume to grow 25%<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Communications has predicted that the number of
\nair passengers in the country will increase by 25 percent next
\nyear on the back of cheaper airfares and rising public confidence
\nin the local airline industry.<\/p>\n
\"After surpassing the 15 million figure this year, a jump of
\n30 percent over last year's figure, we predict the number of
\ndomestic passengers will still increase by 25 percent (in 2004),\"
\nsaid Cucuk Suryo Suprojo, the director general of air
\ntransportation at the ministry, was quoted by Antara as saying on
\nWednesday.<\/p>\n
He explained that the number of domestic air passengers was
\nprojected to reach 20 million.<\/p>\n
He said that this level of growth would be capable of being
\naccommodated via a combination of new airlines entering the
\nmarket and allowing existing airlines to increase their flight
\nfrequencies on certain busy routes.<\/p>\n
Cucuk said that the country may need around 40 new aircraft to
\naccommodate the rising number of air passengers.<\/p>\n
\"That number of air passengers (20 million) can be served by
\naround 240 aircraft,\" he said, adding that currently around 200
\naircraft served domestic routes.<\/p>\n
But he acknowledged that the number of additional aircraft
\nrequired might not be as big, especially if existing airline
\noperators could boost efficiency and increase their aircraft
\nutilization rates.<\/p>\n
\"For instance, one aircraft could be flown for 10 hours per
\nday instead of the usual eight hours,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Over the past two years, more people in the country were
\nflying by air as ticket prices have significantly declined
\nfollowing the entry into the market of new airline operators,
\nparticularly the no-frills airlines.<\/p>\n
Some airlines were even able to cut air fares by up to 75
\npercent.<\/p>\n
The number of air passengers reached 12.8 million people in
\n1997, but dropped to 6.3 million in 2000 following the regional
\neconomic crisis. It rebounded again in 2001 with passenger volume
\nreaching 9.1 million, and increased again to 12.3 million last
\nyear.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere Cucuk also said that the government would push local
\nairline operators to expand their operations to other countries
\nin the region<\/p>\n
He did not provide details.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/airplane-passenger-volume-to-grow-25-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }