Merpati to lease two routes<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): State-owned airline Merpati Nusantara Airlines
\nplans to lease its Denpasar-Perth and Denpasar-Melbourne routes
\nto Orient Thai of Thailand.<\/p>\n
Merpati spokesman Tondo Widodo said here yesterday Merpati
\ncould no longer serve the two routes because it had returned the
\nAirbus-310 jets it used for the destinations to its lessors.<\/p>\n
The Thai airline, under a wet-lease agreement to be signed
\nsoon, will serve the routes with Tristar L-1011 planes.<\/p>\n
Merpati returned 17 of its leased planes, including three
\nAirbus-310 jets, to its foreign lessors late last month as part
\nof cost-cutting measures to survive the current sluggish market
\nin the airline industry.<\/p>\n
The other 14 planes the airline returned were three F-100s,
\none BAe-146 and 10 F-28s.<\/p>\n
Merpati offers flights on its Denpasar-Perth and Denpasar-
\nMelbourne routes three times a week.<\/p>\n
Tondo said talks with Orient Thai over the wet-lease were
\nproceeding well and that he expected an agreement to be finalized
\nearly next week.<\/p>\n
"Hopefully we can sign a wet-lease agreement with Orient Thai
\nnext week," he said.<\/p>\n
Under the agreement, Orient Thai would provide the aircraft,
\ncrew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) for the two routes.<\/p>\n
Tondo declined to mention the value of the contract, but said
\nit would be cheaper than leasing the Airbus-310 jets it had once
\nused to serve the routes.<\/p>\n
Merpati had been paying US$420,000 a month in installment
\npayments for each of its Airbus-310 jets.<\/p>\n
Such lease agreements denominated in dollars have been too
\nexpensive for the country's airlines to continue since part of
\nthe industry's revenues are made in rupiah, which has fallen 80
\npercent in value against the U.S. dollar.<\/p>\n
He said the country's airline operators were now fighting to
\nsurvive and that most carriers would have to slash costs by
\nselling planes, cutting routes and returning leased planes.<\/p>\n
"We have to do it to survive the crisis," he said.<\/p>\n
He said Merpati, which focuses on the domestic market,
\nsuspended flights on its Jakarta-Yogyakarta, Jakarta-Semarang,
\nJakarta-Medan and Jakarta-Singapore routes last month.<\/p>\n
The company also cut its Jakarta-Pontianak flights to three
\ntimes a week from six times a week, its Jakarta-Palembang flights
\nto four times a week from six times a week, its Jakarta-Bandung
\nflights to three times a week from nine times a week and its
\nJakarta-Tanjung Karang flights to three times a week from eight
\ntimes a week.<\/p>\n
"Even these measures may not help the company much," he said.
\n(aly)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/merpati-to-lease-two-routes-1447893297",
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