Airfreight service restriction criticized

Airfreight service restriction criticized

JAKARTA (JP): The government's plan to limit international air
freighters' services to Batam island in Riau province will make
cargo services more costly, an executive said.

Jean-Paul Moreau of Air France Cargo said here yesterday that
if the requirement was fully enforced the operational costs would
be much higher even though the landing rates at Batam's Hang
Nadim Airport were lower.

"It will be costly for any air carriers which have passenger
services to Jakarta, for instance, to fly to Batam for the cargo
service," he said.

The government plans to close all other Indonesian airports to
international cargo jets. The policy will therefore force
international cargo jets serving Indonesian destinations to
reroute their services to Hang Nadim Airport.

Although the airport offers lower landing fees and cheaper
aviation fuel to attract international cargo jets, it is still
short of cargo handling and other related equipment.

Moreau said that his company had not received any official
notice from the Indonesia government advising it to fly to Batam
instead of Jakarta.

The plan was initially introduced to optimize the utilization
of Hang Nadim Airport, in which huge amounts have been invested
to expand its capacity to handle airplanes of up to 747-400s.
Hang Nadim's runway has been extended to more than 4,000 meters,
longer than Jakarta's Cengkareng airport's, and its apron can
host seven Boeing B-747-400s, three Boeing-737s and three F-28s
simultaneously.

Hang Nadim was designed to rival the modernistic Changi
Airport in Singapore, which is just some 25 kilometers from
Batam. Hang Nadim has been renovated to meet many international
standards, but only for passenger services.

Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto has frequently
said that all foreign cargo planes must land in Batam so that
Hang Nadim would become the country's air cargo center.

The minister claims that all international air cargo carriers
must load and unload in Hang Nadim and that only domestic air
cargo companies may handle domestic cargo storage and
distribution. This would protect the country's domestic airlines
in air freight services, he said.

But no law has been passed to that effect.

Officials at the Ministry of Transportation and the
Directorate General of Air Transportation were unavailable for
comment yesterday.

Promising

Moreau said that Indonesia had had a promising air cargo
business in recent years.

"Out of some 202,000 tons of cargo transported by Air France
within Asia annually, 14,000 tons were from Singapore, Kuala
Lumpur and Jakarta. Cargo from Jakarta accounts for some one-
third of the 14,000 tons," he said.

In Asia, Air France Cargo, which owns 12 air freighters, also
flies to Japan, Thailand, India, Korea, Taiwan, Shanghai and Hong
Kong.

The company currently operates a once a week service linking
Paris and Jakarta by Boeing 747-200 cargo jet. In addition, Air
France operates A-340 passenger jets daily between Paris and
Jakarta.

According to Moreau, his company, the third largest air
freighter worldwide after Lufthansa and Korean Air, has
signed a cargo cooperation agreement which allows airlines to
share cargo capacity.

He said neither the haze from local forest fires or
Indonesia's currency turmoil had affected Air France Cargo's
business.

"We have been affected in Malaysia and Thailand (due to the
the recent plunge in the ringgit's and baht's value) as we use
local currencies, but we quote in U.S. dollars in Indonesia," he
said.

The haze has affected passenger air services, not cargo
services, he said. (icn)