BA expands flight service as competitors scale down

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)