100 chartered planes allowed to pick up foreign nationals

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)