Emirates increases flights to Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): Emirates airlines of the United Arab Emirates will start an extra weekly flight to Jakarta next Monday, Area Manager for Indonesia John Rotikan said yesterday.

The fourth flight, using an Airbus A310-300 aircraft with a three-class seat configuration, will stopover in Singapore, he said.

Emirates, which began flying to Indonesia in August 1992, now serves Jakarta three times a week with departures from the city every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

The airline serves Singapore 12 times a week and Melbourne, Australia, three times weekly.

Rotikan said the airline planned to start a new flight service from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur on Sundays.

With a fleet of 19 aircraft, comprising three Boeing 777, 10 Airbus A310-300 and six A300-600 aircraft, Emirates is ready to take on the global airline market, Rotikan said.

"To accommodate increases in passengers, Emirates expects the delivery of four Boeing 777 aircraft in 1997," he said. "By the year 2000, the company will operate a total of 14 Boeing 777 airplanes equipped with Rolls-Royce engines."

He said the Boeing 777s would feature personal videos and fax machines in all classes.

Rotikan said the airline's number of passengers increased 13.8 percent to 2.5 million last year over 1994, and that its planes were 70-percent full on average.

The airlines' cargo increased 20.1 percent last year to 129,560 tons, he added.

He said Emirates made a US$22 million profit last year.

The company's cabin crews are of 40 different nationalities and its cockpit crews are of 20 different nationalities. Only a few of them come from Indonesia, he said. (02)