BA expands flight service as competitors scale down

JAKARTA (JP): British Airways has increased the frequency of flights to Indonesia at a time when many of its competitors have cut services in response to falling tourist bookings as a result of bad publicity surrounding forest fires and the economic crisis.

The airline's country manager Claire Hatton said that British Airways began operating a regular Friday flight yesterday, in addition to five flights already serving the Jakarta-London via Kuala Lumpur route on Saturdays, Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

"We are optimistic that inbound passengers will increase in the short term, because tourist bookings from Europe will start coming in," Hatton said at a media briefing.

She said bookings for June had already increased by 30 percent on last year as the result of tour packages to Indonesia being offered by the airline.

British Airways is offering special tour packages to Bali, including flights and overnight accommodation for European travelers.

British Airways will fly passengers to Jakarta and Garuda will take them on to Denpasar, Bali.

Hatton said the packages had been successful in Europe: "Indonesia is a very attractive market for European travelers."

However, she admitted that the economic turmoil, which resulted in a 70 percent fall in the rupiah's value against the U.S. dollar, had also cut the number of outbound passengers from Indonesia.

Outbound passengers have decreased by 25 percent to 30 percent since last October, while inbound passengers have increased by 30 percent, she said.

She declined to reveal the number of passengers her airline was currently carrying, saying it was "competitively sensitive" information.

Domestic airlines such as Garuda have reduced both domestic and international flights due to low load factors.

The director of accommodation and tourism facilities in the tourism directorate general, Thamrin Bachri, said yesterday that many foreign airlines had pulled out of Indonesia, or cut their operations because of low load factors.

In March, 39 foreign airlines operated 438 flights in Indonesia. In the same month last year, 42 companies operated 482 flights, Thamrin said.

Airline seat capacity in Indonesia dropped from 6.8 million seats last year to 6.4 million seats in March, he said.

The three airlines which had ceased flying to Indonesia were Myanmar Air, Turkish Air and Air Mauritius, he said.

Lufthansa, KLM, Air New Zealand and Korean Air have stopped serving Bali and now only fly to Jakarta, he added.

The United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, The Netherlands and Germany were now being targeted as Indonesia's main tourism markets, he added.

Thamrin said 60 percent of 5.17 million foreign visitors arrived in the country by air last year.

Tourist numbers last year dropped from 5.34 million in 1996. The number of tourists entering the country by air dropped by 2.3 percent to 3.13 million, down from 3.21 million in 1996.

The currency crisis hitting Indonesia's large Asian tourism market, natural disasters and several plane crashes contributed to last year's decrease in tourist numbers. (das)