Airline reaps profits during election

MANADO, North Sulawesi: The number of air passengers from and to North Sulawesi's provincial capital of Manado has risen 10 percent to 20 percent since the electoral campaigning period began last March 11, an airline executive said.

Until the third round of the election campaigns, the load factor of planes flying from and to Manado reached 80 percent to 90 percent of their capacity, Batavia Air's district manager Freddy Mangindaan said on Sunday.

Batavia Air enjoyed a 20-percent increase in the number of air passengers since the start of the election campaigns on March 11, he said. The increase in the number of air passengers mostly happened on the Jakarta-Manado route, he said.

Bouraq also saw a 10-percent rise in the number of air passenger during the election campaigns.

Meanwhile, head of the Garuda Indonesia branch office in Manado, Koko Ritonga, said the national flag carrier experienced an increase in number of air passengers only in the afternoon with the load factor reaching 80 percent.

"The number of air passengers in the morning has been relatively small with the load factor reaching only 50 percent to 60 percent because many planes fly in the morning," he said. -- Antara