Going international<\/p>\n
The Indonesian government's green light to all domestic
\nscheduled airlines to operate international services as of 1998
\nshould greatly spur the tourist industry, increase capacity
\nutilization at major airports and better prepare the country for
\nthe ASEAN free trade area.<\/p>\n
The liberalization of international services, which is the
\nnatural consequence of the partial deregulation of the domestic
\nairline industry in the late 1980s, is needed to support free and
\nopen trade and to promote the tourist industry. Such a policy
\nalso will expose the domestic carriers to tougher competition,
\nthereby forcing them to improve efficiency.<\/p>\n
The national flag-carrier, Garuda Indonesia, which is beset
\nwith financial problems, handicapped by an aging fleet and
\nshackled by bureaucratic intervention, is simply not able to meet
\nthe steady increase in international passenger and cargo traffic
\nto and from the country. At present, two other airlines --
\nSempati and Merpati -- have been providing restricted
\ninternational services, but these services are far from adequate
\nto handle the rapidly growing traffic volume.<\/p>\n
In turn, allowing the nation's four domestic carriers --
\nSempati, Merpati, Bouraq and Mandala -- to operate full
\ninternational services requires Indonesia to open its sky to more
\nforeign airlines because air services are still based mostly on
\nbilateral agreements. That does not mean that foreign airlines
\nwill be free to eat into the domestic market because the
\ngovernment apparently intends to maintain its limited open sky
\npolicy.<\/p>\n
The government will nonetheless have to grant more landing
\nrights to a larger number of foreign airlines to enable the four
\nother domestic airlines to enter international services.<\/p>\n
This should not present a problem, however, because Indonesia,
\ngiven its size as the world's largest archipelagic country, has
\nthe advantage of being able to offer more gateways for point-to-
\npoint international services. In fact, there are already at least
\n10 gateways to the country even though most of them, apart from
\nJakarta, Denpasar and Medan, still handle mostly regional or
\nborder-crossing services.<\/p>\n
Opening more gateways to the country will surely be a boon to
\nthe tourist industry because the facilities will attract
\nrevisits. That will support the government's target of achieving
\nseven million tourist arrivals in 1999, compared to almost four
\nmillion last year.<\/p>\n
Initially the four airlines are likely to emphasize regional
\nservices until they gain more experience and better reputations
\nenabling them to enter into alliances with major international
\nairlines. But even regional services seem to be quite promising.
\nThe development of the three growth triangles -- the first
\nlinking North Sumatra, Penang in Malaysia and northern Thailand,
\nthe second Riau, Singapore and Johor and the third North
\nSulawesi, Mindanao in the Philippines, Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak
\n-- should generate a substantial volume of air traffic.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/going-international-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}