Flights fully booked until first week of January

JAKARTA (JP): City residents planning to celebrate Christmas and the once-in-a-lifetime millennium rollover abroad should be ready to face the unpleasant fact that all flights from Jakarta to several local and international destinations are fully booked.

Interviewed separately on Tuesday and Wednesday, airline and travel agent operators admitted that seats on flights bound for overseas and local popular holiday destinations, such as Bali and Lombok, were fully reserved beginning this weekend until the first week of January 2000.

According to a reservation staff member at Singapore Airlines, Yati, all the airline's flights from Jakarta to several destinations abroad were fully booked starting from this Saturday.

"Seats are only available after Jan. 11," she said.

The same strong business, a sure sign of economic recovery in the country, is also enjoyed at the Qantas Airways office here.

"All seats are booked for our flights beginning from Dec. 17," Ratna, a local staffer at Qantas, said.

In anticipation of a possible influx of holidaymakers, flag carrier Garuda Indonesia Airways and Merpati Nusantara Airlines will provide extra flights to certain local destinations and also to Singapore.

The same policy will also be carried out by the two airlines during Idul Fitri, when Muslims celebrate the end of Ramadhan, which may fall on Jan. 9.

Garuda, for example, will begin operating its extra flights, effective from Dec. 24 to Jan. 4, with 5,570 total extra seats on aircraft serving six routes, consisting of those flying to Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Palembang, Pekanbaru, Denpasar and Singapore.

Separately, head of public relations at Merpati Nusantara, Imam Turidy, said his firm would lay on 68 extra flights from Jakarta to Medan, Denpasar and Makassar.

"Almost all of the extra flights will be effective from Dec. 21 to Jan. 14," he said.

Some travel agents have said that it would be almost impossible for travelers to make new reservations in the days leading up to the holidays.

The manager of Bayu Buana tours and travel's Kelapa Gading branch in East Jakarta, Haryanto, said that overseas flights had been fully booked since Dec. 20.

"Most of the travelers are spending their holidays celebrating New Year's Eve at popular tourist destinations, such as those in Asia, Europe and Australia," he said.

Tour groups

His office is handling 12 outbound tour groups for this year's annual festive season.

According to Haryanto, those who were well-off preferred to celebrate this year's unforgettable New Year's Eve overseas, since the momentous event coincides with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan.

For them, enjoying the jovial night in Jakarta could cause some upset among those who were fasting, he said.

Nike, a ticketing staffer at the Anta tours and travel agency, said his company found that most of the annual travelers were leaving Jakarta until Idul Fitri.

A ticketing employee at the Atlantic tours and travel agency, Theresia, said the business was much different from the same period last year when the country was badly hit by the economic crisis.

"This year, we have full reservations. I think it is likely to cover last year's poor business," she said.

According to Theresia, the only available flights at her firm were for those on Dec. 31, which has been widely dubbed as the most crucial time for the possible impact of the millennium, or Y2K, bug.

"There have been no reservations for that date at our office. I think people have decided to avoid Dec. 31, whereas most airlines have rescheduled their flights for that day," she said.

The airline industry is one of sectors most likely to be affected by the millennium bug which occur when computers fail to read 2000 as the next year and may revert back to 1900 causing widespread havoc.

Due to the problem, several foreign airlines operating in Indonesia have rescheduled or canceled their flights on New Year's Eve.

Other travel agents also reported a low demand for flights during the millennium rollover.

Hotels

Meanwhile, the management at several hotels revealed their optimism that occupancy rates would increase during the changing of the millennium.

"I think there are a lot of people, such as bankers, who can't have a holiday on that day because they have to be on alert for any possible impact of the Y2K problem.

"I hope such people will stay at hotels to celebrate New Year's Eve," said Rully Rachman, director of sales at the Shangri-La hotel in Central Jakarta .

He said more than 40 percent of the hotel's 668 rooms had already been booked for the special evening.

"I'm optimistic that the occupancy rate will later reach 60 percent".

Nur'aini B Prapdanu, the public relations manager at Hotel Horison at the Ancol dreamland park in North Jakarta, said the occupancy rate for millennium eve celebrations had reached about 80 percent of the hotel's total of 440 rooms.

A senior public relations officer at the Hilton hotel in Central Jakarta said that about 450 of the hotel's 1,100 rooms had been reserved. (ind)