Sempati Air grounded by monetary crisis<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Transportation and Communications
\nGiri Suseno Hadihardjono said yesterday PT Sempati Air, one of
\nthe country's six scheduled airlines, would stop operations after
\nbeing crippled for months by the monetary crisis.<\/p>\n
\"It is impossible for Sempati to continue operations in the
\ncurrent difficult situation,\" Giri told reporters after a
\nministerial meeting on economy, finance and industry at the
\nNational Development Planning Board headquarters here.<\/p>\n
\"The government has extended assistance to the company, but
\nits problem is so complicated that there is no other choice for
\nit but to stop operation.\"<\/p>\n
He did not say when termination of operations would take
\neffect, but company employees said they would likely end this
\nSaturday.<\/p>\n
\"The management has told us that employees for flight service
\nwill be laid off this Saturday, but those handling administration
\nwould remain on to collect proceeds from agents,\" a manager said.<\/p>\n
Sempati spokeswoman Rima Novianti refused to confirm Giri's
\nstatement yesterday, but said the company's shareholders would
\nmeet Wednesday to discuss whether it should halt operations amid
\nthe economic crisis.<\/p>\n
\"It's difficult to gain a profit today with 80 percent of our
\ncost in dollars, while earnings are in rupiah,\" Rima told The
\nJakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has been worst hit by the region's monetary crisis,
\nwhich started in Thailand in July last year. The rupiah sank to
\nits lowest level of Rp 17,000 per U.S. dollar in January,
\ncompared with a precrisis level of Rp 2,450 last July.<\/p>\n
The rupiah was 11,500 against the greenback yesterday.<\/p>\n
Rima denied speculation Sempati was folding because of the
\ndownfall of former president Soeharto. Majority shareholders
\ninclude Hutomo \"Tommy\" Mandala Putra and close Soeharto associate
\nMohammad \"Bob\" Hasan.<\/p>\n
Sempati, founded in 1989, is owned by the Malaysian-Indonesian
\njoint venture Asian Aviation Inc. (40 percent), the Indonesian
\nArmy's PT Tri Usaha Bhakti (Truba) (25 percent), Bob Hasan (20
\npercent) and the Humpuss Group, controlled by Tommy (15 percent).<\/p>\n
Rima said Sempati operated a fleet of 25 leased aircraft and
\nemployed 3,500 workers at its peak in 1996, a time when it was
\nlabeled the country's largest private air carrier.<\/p>\n
Currently, it uses five Boeing 737 aircraft and has about 700
\nemployees.<\/p>\n
Although Giri said the government would ask other airlines to
\ntake on the routes serviced by Sempati, he noted this would be
\ndifficult as most carriers were beset by similar economic
\nproblems and were reducing their flight rosters.<\/p>\n
\"Anyway, the government will do its utmost to make sure all
\nprovincial towns are served by airflights,\" Giri said.<\/p>\n
The five other scheduled air carriers are state owned Garuda
\nAirlines, Garuda's subsidiary Merpati Nusantara, Bouraq Airlines,
\nMandala Airlines and Dirgantara Air Service.<\/p>\n
Except for Dirgantara, which only operates its own aircraft,
\nthe carriers lease many of their aircraft. (jsk)<\/p>",
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