Flights on several routes fully booked
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Flights to Jakarta from several parts of the country are fully booked until Monday noon as vacationers rush back to the capital city after spending a long weekend out of town.
Hotasi Nababan, President Director of state-owned airline company Merpati Nusantara Airlines, said the company had to add two extra flights for the Jakarta-Denpasar and Denpasar-Jakarta routes to respond to the high demand.
"We usually have two regular flights every day but during this long weekend, we're operating four extra flights with a carrying capacity of 100 people each," Nababan said.
He also said the ticket prices were now back to normal to about Rp 600,000 (US$66.70) for the Denpasar-Jakarta and Jakarta- Denpasar routes.
"Earlier, due to less passengers the price dropped below the minimum level to about Rp 500,000. Usually, during peak season people still rush for tickets priced at Rp 1 million," Nababan told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
The four-day weekend prompted many residents to travel to a variety of domestic tourist destinations.
The office of the Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare decided earlier to change public holidays next to weekends to revive domestic tourism that was hard hit by the Bali bombing last year.
This weekend, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad holiday which originally fell on May 14 was observed on Thursday, May 15, so there would be a four-day holiday coinciding with Friday's Buddhist Enlightment Day (Waisak).
Separately in Medan, North Sumatra, demand for tickets on the Medan-Jakarta flights increased by about 20 percent.
Ernita, a travel agent with CV Suranta, said that all airplane tickets on the Medan-Jakarta route were fully booked until Monday. "Lion Air tickets are fully booked until Wednesday," she said.
Syamsuddin, Marketing Manager of Garuda Indonesia in Medan, the country's flag carrier, said flights serving the Medan- Jakarta and Medan-Aceh routes were always full these days.
Meanwhile in Yogyakarta, tourists and vacationers were seen flocking to the ancient city during the holidays. Most of Yogyakarta's prominent streets, like the Jl. Malioboro, were more crowded than usual.
The scenery on Parangtritis Beach in Bantul regency some 30 kilometers south of Yogyakarta was similarly busy. Over 2,000 tourists have flocked to he beach since Thursday.
The routes of Java's northern coastal road (Pantura) and Puncak, West Java -- which were also very popular routes during holidays -- were also crowded with private vehicles for the past four days. The return traffic is expected to be quite heavy on Sunday.
In Jakarta, several tourist spots, like Ancol Beach in North Jakarta and the Taman Mini (TMII) in East Jakarta, were also very crowded for most of the weekend.