Domestic airlines to fly abroad

Domestic airlines to fly abroad

JAKARTA (JP): All but one domestic scheduled airlines but one
will be permitted to fly abroad by 1998, Minister of
Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said yesterday.

After reporting to President Soeharto at the Merdeka Palace,
Haryanto said international destinations, including countries in
Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, will
be open for all scheduled airlines, except Dirgantara Air
Service.

"This is globalization and we have to be brave enough to
penetrate markets. If not, we will be the loser," Haryanto said.

He said that Indonesia has introduced a limited open sky
policy and allowed a number of foreign airlines to fly to any
city in the country. In return, Indonesia has to allow all its
airlines to penetrate other countries.

Currently Indonesia has six domestic scheduled airlines: the
country's flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, Merpati Nusantara,
Sempati Air, Bouraq Indonesia, Mandala Airlines and Dirgantara
Air Service. The first four have flown international routes.
However, they fly only to neighboring countries like Singapore,
Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Australia.

Haryanto explained that the government is giving the airlines
two years to prepare themselves to benefit from the new
freedom.

"Don't just fly without earning any money," Haryanto said,
adding that there should be an equal distribution of routes,
especially the "fat" (popular) ones, so that no single airline
will monopolize the fat routes.

Equal chances

"All airlines will be given equal opportunities, according to
their capabilities. No single airline should take all the routes.
So far, Garuda Indonesia has flown all the routes. So, in
addition to Garuda, those routes should not be given to Sempati
only or Merpati only," Haryanto said.

The start of domestic scheduled airlines service of
international routes will force Garuda, which has enjoyed a long
monopoly over Indonesia's international commercial flights, to
compete with them, as well as with foreign airlines.

"We are not paying attention to Garuda only, but also to other
airlines. Garuda has to survive. Garuda has to be able to
compete, not only with foreign airlines, but also with domestic
airlines. We still have until 1998," Haryanto said.

He said the participation of domestic airlines in
international services will not reduce Garuda's existing
international flights. Instead, the government is giving Garuda
the choice of which routes it wants to keep, as well as seeking
to open new routes to countries like South Africa.

"South Africa is a potential market. Singapore Airlines and
Malaysian Airways have flown there. But we haven't. This is a
challenge. I pushed Garuda (to open flight to South Africa). But
Garuda, like a donkey, stayed in the same place and didn't even
move. So, I should give the chance to other airlines," Haryanto
said.

Haryanto hinted that airlines which want to expand their
flights to international routes have to strengthen their fleets
either by buying or leasing new aircraft.

Yesterday Haryanto also reported to Soeharto about progress of
his "crash improvement program" at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port.

He explained that zero waiting time for container vessels had
increased to 78 percent as of this month from merely 12 percent
in May. Waiting time of up to two hours decreased to 17 percent
from 38 percent and waiting time of between two and eight hours
fell dramatically to five percent from 50 percent.

The container port, however, still faces the problem of crane
shortages, which hampers average daily loading-unloading
productivity, Haryanto said.

Average daily productivity decreased to 1,933 boxes between
Oct. 6 and Oct. 10, from 2,233 boxes between Oct. 1 and Oct. 5.

"It happened because a number of cranes have cracked and are
even broken here and there because of being overloaded. We have
ordered some new cranes. Hopefully the ordered cranes will arrive
in the third or fourth week of this month," Haryanto said.

The improvement of services at the port has prompted the Asia
North America Eastbound Rate Agreement group of shipping lines to
drop its threat to impose surcharges on users of its services at
the port. (rid)