Fewer foreigners leave Jakarta on Saturday

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Qantas Airways put on an additional flight from Jakarta to Sydney to accommodate an increase in passenger numbers on Friday following last Saturday's Bali bombing, but there was no sign of a sharp rise in the number of foreigners, especially Australians, leaving Jakarta on Saturday.

"There are no additional flights today or tomorrow. There are still several seats available if you want to book one," a Qantas employee told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The employee, who requested anonymity, said there was an additional flight on Friday.

"But today and tomorrow, things are the same as the situation before the bombing," she said.

Qantas flies everyday from Jakarta directly to Sydney.

Separately, an employee of the state-owned airline Garuda Indonesia said there was a slight increase in the number of foreign passengers leaving Jakarta for the first few days after the Bali bombing.

But many seats were available for this weekend, the employee, Dewi, told the Post.

Garuda flies three times a week from Jakarta to four destinations in Australia: Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Darwin. All flights are via Denpasar.

Directorate General of Immigration spokesman Ade E. Dahlan said there was no data available on the number of foreigners returning home through Jakarta since the Bali incident.

The bomb attack left more than 180 people dead. Most of the foreigners who were killed were Australian.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard during a visit to Bali on Thursday called on Australians to leave Indonesia due to increased security threats following the bombing.

But Indonesia-Australia Business Council (IABC) president Eli Hutabarat revealed that her Australian colleagues would stay in the country.

Star-rated hotels said that the bombing had also slightly affected their businesses.

Meanwhile, the situation on Jl. Jaksa, Central Jakarta, which has a number of small hotels and cafes popular among backpackers and expatriates, has improved.

An employee of the Tator Hostel said business was beginning to look up.

"It was empty for the first and second day after the bombing. But now many foreigners are staying here," the employee, Bambang, told the Post on Saturday.

He said that 15 foreigners, including two Australians, were staying in the 22-room hotel.

He also said that security had improved since the government took measures against a militant group, the Islamic Defenders' Front, whose members had once vandalized cafes along the street.

Nine members of the group, including its leader Rizieq Shihab, have being detained for vandalizing a number of entertainment centers here earlier this month.