Airport a nirvana for many businesses

JAKARTA (JP): Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, west of here, is home to a wide variety of people offering all conceivable goods and services to passengers and their families.

The businesses range from the legal to the illegal, and vendors have been known to force prospective customers to purchase their merchandise or services.

Some of the most bothersome businessmen for visitors to the airport are parking attendants and illegal taxi drivers.

As yet, airport authorities have not explained why they have failed to take measures to clear the airport of these sometimes illegal and often annoying vendors, who threaten the image of the country's largest international airport.

A business which has only recently popped up at the airport is renting telephone cards.

However, many passengers and other visitors to the airport have not felt it necessary to complain about this latest venture.

A passenger on his way to Singapore, Sudirman, said on Sunday the vendors did not disturb passengers, and being able to rent a telephone card would be helpful to those people who needed to make an urgent call but found themselves without a phone card.

"They (the business people) are so creative in searching for business opportunities.

"For people like me who don't have a cellular phone, their services are really helpful," he said, showing a phone card he had just rented.

Identifying the men renting telephone cards is as simple as looking for someone loitering near the telephone booths.

Two of the 11 men offering rental phone cards on this Sunday were Thomson Pardede and Hapsan.

According to the men, no permits or other documents are required to start the business. All that is needed is Rp 30,000 (US$3.75) to purchase a 100-pulse telephone card, although the men did say they had difficulty raising the cash.

Thomson said he began renting phone cards at the airport about three months ago, after he was fired from the fabric company he was working for.

He said he got the idea from a number of his friends who had been in the business for about a year.

Like Hapsan and the other 10 men renting telephone cards, Thomson charges customers Rp 500 per pulse, almost double the normal rate.

"I think the price is fair," he said.

He said that from a Rp 30,000 telephone card he was able to earn a profit of Rp 20,000.

"Sometimes I earn Rp 50,000 per day, but these kind of days don't happen often," said Thomson, who always carries five phone cards with him.

Thomson and his colleagues believe people at the airport often have difficulty making phone calls, because most people do not carry phone cards or coins with them.

Hapsan, in his 30s, said that on a good day he could earn Rp 60,000.

"I'll stick with this business because it's relatively profitable for me," he said. (ind)