Airlines want control of FIR to be national
Airlines want control of FIR to be national
JAKARTA (JP): Domestic air carriers yesterday urged
legislators to encourage the government to take control of the
flight information region (FIR) from Singapore as soon as
Indonesia is capable to operate such a system.
"Indonesia has the capability to operate FIR itself and as
such it is the government's right to approach the International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) based in Montreal, Canada,"
secretary general of the Indonesian Air Carriers' Association
(INACA) G. Benny Rungkat told Commission V of the House of
Representatives here yesterday.
He said that Indonesia has plenty of well-trained air traffic
controllers but yet Singapore still operates the stretch up to
Riau, Pontianak in West Kalimantan and Ujungpandang in South
Sulawesi.
He said that the chances are not so good for Indonesia to
qualify as FIR operators, despite the fact that it operates its
own communication satellites.
"I think there have been at least five seminars about FIR, but
there's no measure from the Directorate General of Air
Transportation to act properly," Benny said.
According to Benny, as Singapore continues to control
Indonesia's air traffic, domestic carrier expenses will be
costlier due to , for example, the time the planes spend waiting
to land.
"I think such a practice may also have an impact on socio-
political affairs, which are not INACA's concerns," he said.
INACA groups 21 firms, including six scheduled airlines,
state-run Garuda Indonesia and Merpati Nusantara and private-run
Sempati Air, Bouraq Airways, Mandala Airlines and Dirgantara Air
Service.
Domestic routes
Meanwhile, Sempati's president Hasan M. Soedjono said that
INACA members' load factors for domestic routes have been
declining and will get worse because their seat capacities are
growing at a faster pace than the number of passengers.
He explained that their total load factor was recorded at 63
percent in 1989, when their planes had a total seat capacity of
14.19 million seats while the number of passengers reached 8.94
million.
The total load factor decreased steadily to 54 percent last
year when 10.8 million passengers used their 20.19-million-seat
capacity.
The load factor is estimated to sink further this year and
next to 51 percent and 49 percent respectively as the number of
passengers is estimated at 11,63 million and 12.52 million while
the available seats will reach 22.63 million and 25.8 million.
According to Hasan, the figure will be poorer as Indonesia
will likely purchase 22 used Boeing 737-200 aircraft from
Lufthansa within the next two years, while Merpati proposes to
expand its fleet with more jet aircraft. Garuda, which focuses on
international routes, is aiming for more domestic routes.
The government recently finalized the procurement of ten B737-
200s worth about $88 million, which will then be resold to
Merpati, Bouraq, Mandala and Sempati through PT Pann Multi
Finance. The government originally planned to buy 32 used
Lufthansa planes, but the purchase of the other 22 was postponed
due to financial problems.
Hasan said the government should keep the aviation business
fair by preventing Garuda from operating more domestic routes and
by opening more regional flights for them. (icn)