Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A mysterious respiratory disease and the war in Iraq have dealt a double blow to Indonesia's airline industry, causing a significant drop in passenger numbers and a sharp rise in operational costs.

The president of the country's flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, Indra Setiawan, said the airline industry was expecting lower revenue as a result of the Iraq war and the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Indra, who is also chairman of the Indonesian National Air Carriers Association, said that since the emergence of SARS several weeks ago, Garuda's daily load factor to and from countries affected by the disease -- Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Vietnam -- had dropped to 60 percent from the 80 percent.

In normal conditions, he said, Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta receives at least 900 passengers a day from those four SARS-affected countries, while Ngurah Rai airport in Bali receives about 1,000 travelers.

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a travel advisory on March 15 for those four countries in a bid to halt the rapid spread of the disease.

Indonesia has also urged citizens not to visit the four countries until the health crisis is brought under control.

SARS, which scientists say is caused by a new virus strain, has spread across many parts of Asia, Europe and America since the first case was reported in China late last year. In China, authorities say the disease has claimed 34 lives.

As for the impact of the Iraq war, Indra said Garuda's load factor to and from the Middle East had dropped to 20 percent from 70 percent prior to the war.

The sharp decrease in the number of passengers bound for the Middle East has forced Garuda to cut its flight frequency to the region from eight times a week to two or three times a week.

The president of state-owned domestic airline Merpati Nusantara, Hotasi Nababan, said his company would raise ticket price by between 10 percent and 12 percent this week due to the rising price of fuel as a result of the Iraq war.

He said the price of aviation fuel had increased by 25 percent due to the war.

Hotasi also said SARS had affected Merpati, despite the fact that the airline only serves domestic routes. He said the load factor on domestic flights had dropped 5 percent due to the decrease in foreign arrivals to the country.

He said Merpati would suspend service on several domestic routes considered "unprofitable" as part of a cost-cutting program to deal with the impact of the Iraq war and SARS.

He declined to identify the routes.