Ansett plans Sydney-Jakarta flight

Ansett plans Sydney-Jakarta flight

JAKARTA (JP): Ansett Australia had applied for permission to
fly to Jakarta four times a week as a part of its international
expansion program, an executive said yesterday.

"We plan to operate our non-stop services between Sydney and
Jakarta from March 1996 and the airline will use a Boeing 767-300
aircraft in an international configuration," said the airline's
manager for Indonesia, Ron Brown.

The flight to Jakarta is intended for business travelers, in
recognition of the rapid development of the economic relationship
between the two countries, he said.

Brown did not say whether the Indonesian government had
approved the airline's application.

"In the medium term, we hope that Ansett will fly between the
two cities daily. For the next two years we will concentrate on
establishing our representative office in Jakarta, before
thinking about other destinations in Indonesia," Brown said.

Ansett began its international service with five flights a
week to Denpasar, Bali, in September 1993. It has now increased
that service to a daily flight to the Balinese capital.

"Indonesia is the sixth-most-popular destination country for
Australians and will be a country where Ansett Australia flies to
more than one destination," Brown said.

Besides Indonesia, Ansett flies to Hong Kong and Osaka and
will commence flights to Kuala Lumpur and Taipei in November.

In addition, Ansett has gained the right to fly to Singapore
and Seoul and between a number of cities in Australia and New
Zealand

"Promotion has increased Australians' interest in Indonesia,
Bali in particular, and resulted in passenger growth rates of
17.7 percent in 1993 and 21.7 percent in 1994," Brown added.

In 1994, 733,939 people traveled between Australia and
Indonesia.

Greig McAllen of the Australia Tourist Commission said that
the number of Indonesians traveling to Australia is expected to
increase by 40 percent this year, to about 125,000 people.

The number is likely to reach 500,000 by the year 2000, he
said.

Ansett, with a fleet of 80 jet aircraft, currently has the
third-largest market share of the seven airlines flying between
Indonesia and Australia. (31)