Batam Aircraft Maintenance delays project
JAKARTA (JP): Batam Aircraft Maintenance, an aircraft maintenance facility jointly owned by Indonesian and Singaporean parties, has decided to delay launching its operations until the end of this year from the original schedule slated for this month.
An executive of the project, Suyatim A. Habibie, told The Jakarta Post that the operation of the US$10 million project has been delayed for technical reasons.
"We have rescheduled the project's development, especially the apron construction. But we don't have any financial problems. Everything is under control," he said.
Habibie, popularly called Timmi, refused to give more details on the project.
The agreement to establish Batam Aircraft Maintenance was signed in September 1994 by four Indonesian parties and a Singaporean company.
The Indonesian parties include the state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT IPTN, which is controlled by Minister for Research and Technology B.J. Habibie, a brother of Timmi (with a 25-percent ownership); the YASAU foundation of the Air Force (20 percent) and Sempati Air (20 percent), a private airline owned by several parties including businessman Mohammad (Bob) Hasan and President Soeharto's youngest son Hutomo Mandala Putra.
The other Indonesian shareholder is PT Saltim Mitra Corporation (with an ownership of 10 percent), a joint venture between Liem Sioe Liong's Salim Group and Timmi's Timsco Group, while the Singaporean shareholder is Singapore Aerospace (25 percent), an affiliate of the Singapore Technologies Holdings.
The idea for the establishment of Batam Aircraft Maintenance was initiated in late 1991, while its agreement was signed three years later after tough negotiations.
The project, now under construction on a 2.5-hectare area, will cover a plot of up to five hectares with an investment of about $30 million.
The 415-square-kilometer island of Batam, which is situated some 20 kilometers southeast of Singapore, has been developed since early the 1970s as an industrial and tourism center. The Hang Nadim airport on the island's east coast has just been expanded as an international gateway with a 4,000-meter runway to serve both scheduled and chartered passenger and cargo flights with jumbo jets.
However, analysts said that it will be hard for the Hang Nadim airport to compete with Singapore's Changi Airport as an international transport hub because the flow of goods and passengers at the former is still low. (icn)