Cheap airline tickets

Cheap airline tickets

Until two years ago traveling by plane was considered a luxury
because tickets were relatively expensive. But things have
changed as more airlines have begun operating.

The competition among airlines has become more intense with
the appearance of the new competitors. Lion Air and Bouraq are
competing on the Jakarta-Yogyakarta route, with each airline
offering tickets for about Rp 280,000.

Tickets on the Jakarta-Surabaya route now cost about Rp
280,000, and the price for a ticket for the Jakarta-Pontianak
(West Kalimantan) route can be had for as low as Rp 275,000 per
person.

A ticket to Medan, which used to cost almost Rp 1 million, now
goes for just Rp 500,000. This means that for only Rp 1 million
people can fly from Jakarta to Sumatra, Kalimantan, Bali or even
South Sulawesi. This was not possible in the past.

Middle-class people will no longer find it difficult to travel
to their hometowns by plane. This fact must be surprising for
international observers, who note that Indonesian airlines have
become lively amid the country's economic woes.

Last October airplane tickets to Bali were sold out before a
long holiday. Previously, this only happened during seasonal
holidays like Idul Fitri, Christmas and the New Year.

However, all this good news for the airlines is bad for
the operators of ground and marine transportation businesses, who
are complaining of sluggish business. Their passengers have
apparently turned to airplanes.

-- Warta Kota, Jakarta

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Otherop-postwar-Iraq
Democracy and post-war Iraq
JP/6/

Democracy and post-war Iraq

The mere thought that democracy will wash over Iraq and carry
away other Arab countries in the Middle East like a domino effect
is naive and unrealistic.

The Arab countries have no democratic tradition.

Most Arab countries are based on clan structures and often are
split between ethnic and religious population groups. It doesn't
mean that democracy will never grow in the Middle East, but it
means that it will take a long time and it cannot be forced by
foreign powers like the United States did with Germany and Japan
after World War II.

The United States can garner much support if it supports the
idea of a United Nations role in a future Iraq.

It will also help improve the relationship between Europe and
the United States, a relationship that both parties need in light
of future challenges.

-- Kristeligt Dagblad, Copenhagen, Denmark