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

; ANPAk..r.. 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