Airplane passenger volume to grow 25%

Airplane passenger volume to grow 25%

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Ministry of Communications has predicted that the number of
air passengers in the country will increase by 25 percent next
year on the back of cheaper airfares and rising public confidence
in the local airline industry.

"After surpassing the 15 million figure this year, a jump of
30 percent over last year's figure, we predict the number of
domestic passengers will still increase by 25 percent (in 2004),"
said Cucuk Suryo Suprojo, the director general of air
transportation at the ministry, was quoted by Antara as saying on
Wednesday.

He explained that the number of domestic air passengers was
projected to reach 20 million.

He said that this level of growth would be capable of being
accommodated via a combination of new airlines entering the
market and allowing existing airlines to increase their flight
frequencies on certain busy routes.

Cucuk said that the country may need around 40 new aircraft to
accommodate the rising number of air passengers.

"That number of air passengers (20 million) can be served by
around 240 aircraft," he said, adding that currently around 200
aircraft served domestic routes.

But he acknowledged that the number of additional aircraft
required might not be as big, especially if existing airline
operators could boost efficiency and increase their aircraft
utilization rates.

"For instance, one aircraft could be flown for 10 hours per
day instead of the usual eight hours," he said.

Over the past two years, more people in the country were
flying by air as ticket prices have significantly declined
following the entry into the market of new airline operators,
particularly the no-frills airlines.

Some airlines were even able to cut air fares by up to 75
percent.

The number of air passengers reached 12.8 million people in
1997, but dropped to 6.3 million in 2000 following the regional
economic crisis. It rebounded again in 2001 with passenger volume
reaching 9.1 million, and increased again to 12.3 million last
year.

Elsewhere Cucuk also said that the government would push local
airline operators to expand their operations to other countries
in the region

He did not provide details.