EVA Air upbeat on RI flights

JAKARTA (JP): Taiwan's EVA Air said the flow of passengers from Taiwan to Indonesia remained strong despite security fears ahead of the June 7 general election.

"We are overbooked for trips to Bali and have quite a few passengers for Jakarta starting from May and it should continue strong until June," EVA Air Indonesia country manager Makmun Hamsa said here on Wednesday.

Makmun said the company's current load factor in Indonesia was between 60 percent and 64 percent.

He also said EVA Air would give more attention to its cargo business because the world's cargo business had shown strong growth over the past few years.

He said the company signed a purchase deal on May 5 in Taipei to add two new cargo aircraft to its fleet between July and August this year and another three cargo aircraft by early 2000.

The five new aircraft are two MD-11 freighters and three Boeing 747-400 freighters.

The airline provides a daily round-trip flight from Jakarta to Taiwan and five weekly round-trip flights from Surabaya and Denpasar to Taiwan. (udi)