Domestic air travelers up by 29%
Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung, West Java
The Indonesian National Air Carriers Assocation (INACA) projected that domestic airline passenger numbers would hit 22 million this year, up 29 percent from 17 million last year.
Inaca's secretary-general, Tengku Burhanuddin predicted that the increasing trend in the number of passengers would persist in the coming years in view of the tighter competition among a plethora of new domestic airlines, and steadily falling airfares as a result.
"Hopefully, those trends will continue. The ongoing renovation projects at many airports and the greater ease for the public to buy airline tickets helps support the trend," he told reporters on Monday on the sidelines of the congress of the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA) in Bandung.
According to him, the number of domestic airline passengers dropped to 10 million four years ago, when the nation was still in the worst phase of the economic crisis. The number rose to 12 million two years ago and 17 million a year ago.
He said that domestic airline industry still had ample room to grow further as regular air travellers account for only 1.3 percent, or 3 million, of the nation's 220 million population.
"The portion of regular air travellers could be increased to 10 percent," he said
According to Burhanuddin, the government has issued licenses to 30 airlines to provide regular domestic flight services, eight of which are not yet operating. In addition, 45 more companies have received licenses to operate chartered flight services, nine of which have yet to start operating.
Burhanuddin said the increasing number of domestic air travellers had helped speed up the recovery process of the nation's tourism industry at a time when many foreign tourists were still reluctant to come because of fears of terrorism.
Asita's chairman Ben Sukma concurred with Burhanuddin.
"Even though they (local tourists) spend less than foreign tourists, they are able to give a big boost during the economic crisis," he said.