Emirates drops daily Jakarta-Dubai service

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)