BA upbeat on new services despite monetary crisis

JAKARTA (JP): British Airways is set to boost its services in Indonesia and is upbeat that the country's economic problems will not hamper its expansion plan.

The airline's marketing manager for Indonesia Maureen Budiman said the monetary crisis and the haze problem, which had been affecting the country, would only be temporary.

She said the buying power of Indonesia's middle-class would continue to increase despite the monetary problem, which had slashed the value of the rupiah against the U.S. dollar by about 35 percent since the crisis began in early July.

To cater to Indonesians' growing buying power, British Airways will increase its services connecting Jakarta and London through Kuala Lumpur to seven times a week in October 1998.

British Airways currently serves the Jakarta-London route five times a week, except on Monday and Friday.

"We are looking forward to serving the daily Jakarta-London route through Kuala Lumpur in October next year," Maureen said recently.

She said the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications had approved the plan and British Airways was now waiting for the go-ahead from Indonesian flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and the British government.

She said the British government and Garuda Indonesia had yet to discuss compensation for Garuda for the additional services by British Airways.

"The Indonesian flag carrier Garuda Indonesia should receive compensation for the new services by British Airways. They are discussing the case now," she said.

Maureen said the depreciation of currencies across Southeast Asian had little impact on the British airline's business.

"We only felt the rupiah's depreciation against the American dollar earlier this month," she said.

She said business between July and October was normal.

"This week has really been lousy for business," she said.

She said the average load factor for the Jakarta-London route was 70 percent on normal business days. She declined to mention the rate on lousy days.

Thick haze, which has covered most parts of the region and has caused a drop in tourism, also did not adversely affect the airline's business in Indonesia.

"Jakarta hasn't felt the impact of the thick haze -- unlike Kuala Lumpur. So the Jakarta-London route is not affected by the haze at all," she said.

British Airways operates 356-seat Boeing 747-400 aircraft along the Jakarta-London route.

Maureen said the seat configuration consisted of 13 first- class seats, 56 business-class seats and the remaining for economy class.

She said the British airline had allocated some Rp 24 trillion (US$7 billion) in new investment to improve its services, aircraft, facilities and training for the next three years.

The new investment would cover the purchase of 43 new aircraft, including 29 Boeing 747-400s, nine 777s and five 757s.

"This will give the airline a huge fleet of 67 Boeing 747-400s in a fleet of over 300 aircraft," she said.

Currently, British Airways operates 308 aircraft serving 90 countries worldwide and has major alliances with Qantas Airways and American Airlines. (aly)