Domestic air travelers up by 29%

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.