Domestic routes start to open up to foreign firms

JAKARTA (JP): The increase of foreign flight service to a number of domestic destinations will force domestic carriers to be more careful when choosing additional domestic routes, Director General of Tourism Andi Mappi Sammeng said.

However, when speaking to reporters here yesterday, he added that the opening of more airports in Indonesia to international service will make it easier and more economical for foreign visitors to reach tourist destinations.

The government has so far allowed a number of foreign airlines to serve some Indonesian destinations other than the country's traditional four points of entry for foreign visitors.

This foreign service has been blamed for causing losses to the national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, taking business from its domestic flight services in the first six months of this year.

Under a planned amendment of the air agreement between Indonesia and Singapore, two Singaporean airliners, Singapore Airlines and SilkAir, will be allowed to fly directly to nine cities in Indonesia. Indonesia, in turn, will be allowed to assign two more airlines to transport passengers between the two countries, in addition to the three airlines which currently hold those routes. The amendment is expected to be signed later this month, when President Soeharto and Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong hold a meeting in Yogyakarta.

The two Singaporean airlines currently serve 10 Indonesian cities -- Denpasar, Medan, Surabaya, Manado, Padang, Pekanbaru, Pontianak, Ambon, Biak and Jakarta.

An airline executive commented that the load factors of domestic airlines will likely decline after the entrance of foreign carriers to the routes connecting Jakarta and other domestic destinations.

"Domestic airlines, therefore, should indeed create new profitable routes within the country," Andi said.

Garuda is currently asking the government to allow it to serve 24 new domestic routes. It is now preparing its aging Fokker-28 aircraft to serve the proposed routes later this year.

Andi said yesterday that Indonesian airlines should not be worried about the expected increase in the participation of foreign airlines in domestic routes. "Basically, Indonesian airlines' businesses will not be affected even though foreign airlines operate several services to various destinations in the country because the government has adopted a cabotage policy," he said.

He said that, under the policy, foreign airlines are not allowed to fly passengers from one destination to another within Indonesia to avoid domestic airlines from suffering declines in load factors.

Animal conference

Meanwhile, Minister Joop Ave said that Manado, North Sulawesi, will host the first conference on eastern Indo-Australian vertebrates on Nov. 22-27.

"The event will show that Indonesia has many wonderful tourist facilities," he said.

He said that the event, focusing on "harmonizing vertebrates conservation and human needs," will be organized by his ministry in cooperation with the Ministry of Forestry, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) and several non-governmental organizations, including the Institute of Wallacea which is supported by State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie.

Chairman of the conference's organizing committee, Soetikno Wirjoatmodjo, said that some 100 scientists will attend the event which will feature former minister Emil Salim as a keynote speaker.(icn)