AWAIR to add more planes, expand routes

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Low-cost carrier PT AWAIR International plans to add one aircraft to its fleet in December and five more next year as it expands its domestic routes.

"A Boeing 737-300, which we are leasing, will arrive next month," AWAIR president director Sendjaja Widjaja said on Thursday. "We hope to add five more aircraft to our fleet next year."

AWAIR, the local arm of the regional budget airline AirAsia, will use the aircraft arriving next month to serve the route between Jakarta and Surakarta, Central Java. The five planes arriving next year do not yet have fixed routes.

"Flights to Central Java currently focus on Yogykarta. Apparently, some of the people on these flights are actually traveling to cities around Yogyakarta," Sendjaja said. "We think Surakarta would be a good alternative destination for those passengers."

At present, AWAIR flies to six cities domestically using four Boeing 737 aircraft. It hopes to be operating 30 planes by 2010.

Sendjaja said the company would also try to secure a license to fly to Singapore.

The budget airline was denied a license to land in Singapore in January because it is a low-cost flier. The company suffered millions of dollars in losses when it had to refund some 6,000 canceled bookings for flights to the island-state.

"We filed a second application earlier this week after ensuring we met all the requirements. Hopefully, Singapore will not add additional requirements," he said.

Sendjaja said that if required, the budget carrier would operate as a "boutique" airline by adding snacks and services that it normally does not offer on domestic flights to cut down costs.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, Sendjaja said, declared that it would not issue permits to budget airlines from Indonesia because Singapore's low-cost airlines had been denied landing permits in four Indonesian cities.

However, fellow Indonesian carrier AdamAir obtained a license from Singapore by operating as a "boutique airline".

"AdamAir got the license fairly. We are simply aiming at a niche market by providing in-flight services that are not as costly as premium airlines," AdamAir chief communications officer Dave F. Laksono said earlier.

Sendjaja said AWAIR's being denied a permit to enter Singapore's airspace had a lot to do with an earlier policy by Indonesia's Ministry of Transportation.

The ministry did not allow Singaporean budget airlines JetStar and Tiger Air to land at airports in Jakarta, Surabaya in East Java, Medan in South Sumatra and Denpasar in Bali.

It said Indonesia had to impose flight restrictions on Singaporean budget carriers to protect the country's fledgling airline industry.

China and Indonesia have placed similar restrictions on the other country's budget carriers. Indonesian budget airlines are barred from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, while Chinese low- cost carriers cannot fly into Surakarta, Balikpapan or Pontianak.