1.3m overseas airline tickets sold last year

JAKARTA (JP): Domestic sales of international air tickets issued by overseas airlines rose 15 percent to 1.3 million in 1996.

Djuarsa Joedadibrata, a senior executive of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Indonesia, said yesterday that this growth rate was higher than the previous year's growth of 12 percent.

"The increase was caused by sound economic growth in Indonesia in recent years. More people are traveling abroad for their vacations," he told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

About 95 percent of the 1.3 million tickets had been bought by Indonesians, Djuarsa said.

He said the growth rate would be higher this year.

"Though there is no significant relationship, the growth rate of overseas (ticket sales) is likely to increase this year with several foreign air carriers' plans to start direct flights to Indonesia," he said.

Last December, Myanmar Airways International of Myanmar became the 38th foreign airline with a regular service to Indonesia. Several other foreign airlines -- including Northwest and United Airlines of the United States, Lauda Air of Austria and Canada Air -- are planning to open routes to Indonesia.

The government has designated 23 airports as international gateways to the archipelago.

Djuarsa said that Indonesians could also buy tickets from airlines which were not directly serving Indonesia.

"Many airlines like Swiss Air are doing well here though the company has not flown to Indonesia directly," he said.

IATA recently announced that Asian air traffic was expected to increase 8.6 percent a year on average between 1990 and 2010, with two-thirds of this growth occurring in China.

The Geneva-based IATA has announced that air traffic within the Asia-Pacific region would reach 200 million passengers by 2000, facilitated by the liberalization of air transport and development of new airports.

The IATA said that demand for air transport in the region was growing faster than in any other part of the world because of its rapid economic growth.

Asia-Pacific passenger traffic grew by 10.3 percent a year on average between 1985 and 1993, reaching 112 million passengers or 35.3 percent of the world's traffic. (icn)