100 chartered planes allowed to pick up foreign nationals

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Communications has allowed more than 100 chartered flights to touch down over the past several days since riots hit Jakarta, mostly to carry foreign nationals out of the country, a senior official said here yesterday.

"Since the riots began, up to this morning we have authorized between 100 and 105 chartered flights," the Director General of Transportation in the ministry, Zainudin Sikado, told reporters yesterday.

Zainudin said the planes were operated by international and local airlines and most were headed to Singapore or Hong Kong.

"We had two authorized chartered planes leaving Jakarta just this morning," he said on the sidelines of a ministry hearing with House of Representatives Commission IV for public works, transportation, communications and public housing.

The commercial director of national-flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, Soedarso Kaderi, said yesterday the airline had also enjoyed an increase in outbound passengers from Jakarta since the riots began Thursday.

"Until yesterday, demands were still high," Soedarso said.

Jakarta was strife-torn for three days last week, when angry mobs went on the rampage, vandalizing and looting shops and offices across the city.

Many foreign nationals and terrified ethnic Chinese, who felt threatened by the outrage, have fled the country to seek refuge. The later often become targets of mass anger during periods of social unrest.

Soedarso said Garuda had to deploy bigger airplanes to accommodate the large demand, he said.

For example, it replaced Boeing 737 aircraft with the Boeing 747-200, he said.

To cover the operation costs of returning flights with few or no passengers, Garuda charged higher rates for these flights, he said.

"It is a flexible response," he said.

The airline also rerouted several of its international flights to other parts of Indonesia, making Bali their final destination.

The Garuda Paris-Medan flight, for example now terminates in Bali. The Japan-Kalimantan flight now ends in Bali, as it is considered the safest place, he said.

The commercial director of Merpati Nusantara Airlines, Indra Setiawan, said it had also deployed chartered airplanes since Friday to carry large volumes of passengers out of the city.

Indra said most of the passengers were headed to Batam in Riau, Singapore, Pangkal Pinang in South Sumatra and Pontianak in West Kalimantan.

Passengers also left for Singapore from Bandung, West Java, while many passengers from Medan left for Penang, Malaysia, he said.

The unusually heavy traffic forced Merpati to reroute some of its flights to accommodate changes in the routing, he said.

Indra said the airline was charging a different rate on the extra flights.

"We have not raised the fares of our regular flights, but if the demand forces us to put on additional flights, we expect the passengers to help us carry the cost of flying the empty planes back," he said. (das)