Emirates drops daily Jakarta-Dubai service

JAKARTA (JP): The United Arab Emirates-based airline Emirates said on Thursday it had shelved plans for this year to introduce a daily flight service from Jakarta to Dubai from its current schedule of four times a week due to sluggish demand in the international market.

Emirates' manager for Indonesia John Ratikan said that he attributed the sluggish demand to the country's political uncertainties.

"We've postponed it although we got the permit in January," he told a media briefing."We'll wait until demand recovers."

John said the company feared that if it went ahead with the plan, its load factor on the Jakarta-Dubai route would drop significantly from last year's load factor of between 70 percent and 75 percent.

The airline has targeted a 28 percent growth in revenue from its passenger service for the one year period between April 2001 and March 2002 but the airline is likely to be unable to reach the target based on the April and May performance, during which the company recorded a mere one digit of growth.

He however declined to provide any figures.

He further said the airline had revised down its revenue growth target for its cargo service to 15 percent during the period from the initial 20 percent due to sluggish demand.

Cargo orders for the next six to twelve months had shown a declining trend, adding that at present the airline mostly served on-arrival cargo orders.

Average cargo prices had also decreased by 5 percent from last year's prices, he said.

The cargo service accounts for between 20 percent and 25 percent of Emirates' revenue in Indonesia.

John said the company would maintain its original revenue target this year, hoping that the airline could offset a bad result between April and May.

"We still have several peak months ahead such as the school vacation, the new year and the haj season," he said.(O5)