Air carriers hit 23m passengers this year
Air carriers hit 23m passengers this year
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The domestic terminal at the Soekarno-Hatta International
Airport, west of Jakarta, has never been more lively.
It has also never seen such a mixed bag of passengers -- amid
the office attire that the terminal was more accustomed to, T-
shirts, worn-out batik shirts, and rubber slippers are now a
common sight.
Airports all across the archipelago are witnessing similar
scenes as cheaper air travel and a faster growing economy allow
more people to take to the skies.
The Indonesian National Air Carriers Association (INACA)
estimates domestic passenger traffic to reach 23 million this
year, 31 percent higher than last year's figure of 17.5 million.
The association's secretary-general Tengku Burhanuddin told
The Jakarta Post on Monday that the target set for airline
passenger' growth this year was initially 20 percent.
"The higher growth is due to an improved economy, new
airlines, more aircraft and greater affordability," said
Burhanuddin.
According to the Central Statistics Agency, up to October some
17.92 million seats had been sold on domestic flights, already
exceeding the total figure for 2003.
However significant, this year's climb does not surpass that
of 2003, which saw a 43 percent surge in domestic passenger
traffic from 12.19 million in 2002 -- the year the government
removed airlines' floor fares and budget operators sprung to
life.
For 2005, INACA estimates a more modest growth of between 16
percent and 17 percent in passenger traffic, providing economic
conditions continue to improve and airlines expand their fleets.
"Hopefully oil prices will also go down," said Burhanuddin.
There are 22 airlines and 35 companies that charter aircraft
holding licenses to operate in the country. The government
recently announced its decision to cease issuing new licenses, as
the existing players are deemed enough to accommodate the demand.
According to INACA, the load factor for domestic flights on
average is between 80 percent and 85 percent. Without new
aircraft, the targeted growth would be hard to achieve, said
Burhanuddin.
Indonesia's leading budget airline Lion Air is one of the
players moving in this direction. Within three months, 14
McDonnel-Douglas MD-82, MD-90 aircraft, and Boeing 737-400 are
expected to join its current fleet of 26 aircraft.
"As a company, our target for passenger growth next year is
between 50 percent and 70 percent," said airline spokesman Hasyim
Arsal Alhabsi.
"There is a large untapped market that we have to build," he
said.
Meanwhile national flag-carrier Garuda Indonesia said that
throughout this year, approximately 4 million passengers had
traveled their domestic routes.
"There's only a very slight increase in passengers. We've
missed our target due to several miscalculations, such as
people's travel tendencies around the general elections," said
sales director Bahrul Hakim, without specifying the target.
Garuda is optimistic that next year, people who postponed
travel due to election jitters will start making trips, and sets
a target of a 10 percent increase in traffic.
The airline also plans to ride with the low-cost carrier wave
and expand its own no-frills division, the Citilink, with at
least 10 additional aircraft.
"The domestic routes will be served mostly by Citilink, not
our main brand," he said.