Extra flights not used by foreign airlines
JAKARTA (JP): Several international airlines including EVA Air, Emirates Airlines and Singapore Airlines (SIA) denied on Friday that they have asked the government for permission to boost flight frequency from Indonesia.
EVA Air's assistant manager for the passenger section Diana Mawarsari said the airline didn't need extra flights to meet the rise in outbound passengers.
"We can still take more passengers without extra flights as our load factor is still about 64 percent," she told The Jakarta Post.
She said EVA Air opened only one extra flight during last year's May riots when a great number of both Indonesians and foreigners fled the country to avoid being trapped in the unrest which led to the downfall of former president Soeharto on May 21 after 32 years of rule.
EVA Air flies seven times a week from Jakarta to Taipei and five times a week from Surabaya via Denpasar to Taipei. At least 48 foreign airlines operating in Indonesia have asked for the government's approval to increase their flights to anticipate a possible surge in outbound passengers in the coming months, a senior aviation official has said.
Director General for Aviation of the Ministry of Communications Soenaryo Yosopratomo said on Thursday at least 48 foreign airlines had asked for government approval to boost their Indonesian flights.
"On average, they asked permission to expand their flights by 40 percent above their regular frequencies," he was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying. But he added none of them had used the extra flights and the volume of outbound passengers was still within the normal level.
The official did not say the reasons why the airlines sought extra flights. But tour operators said that booking for overseas trips were on the increase as many people wanted to avoid possible unrest ahead, during and after the general election in June.
He said the aviation industry considered the recent increase in outbound traffic of up to 30 percent at the Jakarta Soekarno Hatta International Airport as normal.
Analysts have warned that the rivalry among the 48 political parties contesting the election could spark a further unrest.
Emirates Airlines sales manager Ilonka Leiwakabessy echoed Mawarsari's explanation, saying more passengers could still be served with the existing flights.
Emirates Airlines, which flies three times a week to serve return flights from Dubai, Colombo, Singapore and Jakarta, has an average load factor of 70 percent, she said.
While SIA's general manager for Indonesia, Alfreds Vijendran, said the airlines' existing flights were still able to accommodate the surge in demand.
"We expect the load factor to continue going up to about 70 percent for May from 65 percent recorded for April," he said.
"This figure (70 percent), however, is still not good compared to at least 80 percent we usually booked before the economic crisis began," he added.
SIA flies seven times a day from Jakarta to Singapore, nine times a week from Surabaya to Singapore and three times a day from Denpasar to Singapore.
The only foreign airline that has declared its flight expansion was Japan Air Lines (JAL).
In mid-April, JAL doubled its weekly flights to 14 times from a previous seven to connect Jakarta and Surabaya to destination cities in Tokyo, Osaka and Narita.
JAL's sales manager for Indonesia Shuichi Sakamoto said the increase was to meet the high outbound demand during school holidays of May and June, and not to accommodate the forecasted mass exodus of Indonesians who might flee the country to avoid possible riots.
According to Soenaryo, the government would use the Halim Perdanakusuma airport in East Jakarta, which currently serves only presidential, governmental and chartered flights, as an emergency gateway for necessary evacuation. (cst)