Flights on several routes fully booked<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Flights to Jakarta from several parts of the country are fully
\nbooked until Monday noon as vacationers rush back to the capital
\ncity after spending a long weekend out of town.<\/p>\n
Hotasi Nababan, President Director of state-owned airline
\ncompany Merpati Nusantara Airlines, said the company had to add
\ntwo extra flights for the Jakarta-Denpasar and Denpasar-Jakarta
\nroutes to respond to the high demand.<\/p>\n
\"We usually have two regular flights every day but during this
\nlong weekend, we're operating four extra flights with a carrying
\ncapacity of 100 people each,\" Nababan said.<\/p>\n
He also said the ticket prices were now back to normal to
\nabout Rp 600,000 (US$66.70) for the Denpasar-Jakarta and Jakarta-
\nDenpasar routes.<\/p>\n
\"Earlier, due to less passengers the price dropped below the
\nminimum level to about Rp 500,000. Usually, during peak season
\npeople still rush for tickets priced at Rp 1 million,\" Nababan
\ntold The Jakarta Post on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The four-day weekend prompted many residents to travel to a
\nvariety of domestic tourist destinations.<\/p>\n
The office of the Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare
\ndecided earlier to change public holidays next to weekends to
\nrevive domestic tourism that was hard hit by the Bali bombing
\nlast year.<\/p>\n
This weekend, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad holiday which
\noriginally fell on May 14 was observed on Thursday, May 15, so
\nthere would be a four-day holiday coinciding with Friday's
\nBuddhist Enlightment Day (Waisak).<\/p>\n
Separately in Medan, North Sumatra, demand for tickets on the
\nMedan-Jakarta flights increased by about 20 percent.<\/p>\n
Ernita, a travel agent with CV Suranta, said that all airplane
\ntickets on the Medan-Jakarta route were fully booked until
\nMonday. \"Lion Air tickets are fully booked until Wednesday,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Syamsuddin, Marketing Manager of Garuda Indonesia in Medan,
\nthe country's flag carrier, said flights serving the Medan-
\nJakarta and Medan-Aceh routes were always full these days.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile in Yogyakarta, tourists and vacationers were seen
\nflocking to the ancient city during the holidays. Most of
\nYogyakarta's prominent streets, like the Jl. Malioboro, were more
\ncrowded than usual.<\/p>\n
The scenery on Parangtritis Beach in Bantul regency some 30
\nkilometers south of Yogyakarta was similarly busy. Over 2,000
\ntourists have flocked to he beach since Thursday.<\/p>\n
The routes of Java's northern coastal road (Pantura) and
\nPuncak, West Java -- which were also very popular routes during
\nholidays -- were also crowded with private vehicles for the past
\nfour days. The return traffic is expected to be quite heavy on
\nSunday.<\/p>\n
In Jakarta, several tourist spots, like Ancol Beach in North
\nJakarta and the Taman Mini (TMII) in East Jakarta, were also very
\ncrowded for most of the weekend.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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