Foreign airlines asked to increase flights to RI

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto has asked foreign airlines to increase the frequency of their flights to Indonesia and asked foreign countries to open up more destinations to Indonesian airlines.

"The purpose is to help Indonesia meet its target of 7 million foreign tourist arrivals by the year 2000," the minister was quoted by Antara as saying in Paris Thursday.

The minister is currently touring several countries in Europe.

In Paris, Haryanto spoke to the French Civil Airlines Directorate General and Air France about flying "as many flights as possible" to the 23 airports in Indonesia open to international flights.

The minister said he would propose the same offer to other foreign air carriers, including KLM, British Airways, JAL, China Airlines, Eva Air, Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa.

Haryanto said Air France plans to increase the number of its flights to Indonesia from four times a week to once a day.

"In return we called on France to permit Indonesian airlines to increase their flights there, and to give them the right to fly to Nice," said the minister.

In France, the minister and his entourage, including a director of the state-owned railway firm Perumka, Soemino Ekosaputro, also visited the Cegelec railway firm in Rouen to see its light rail system.

The system is reportedly going to be applied in Bandung, West Java, by Cegelec in cooperation with Perumka under a build, operate and transfer (BOT) scheme.

"For that purpose, they (Cegelec) have asked to do a study on investment value and ticket prices. I asked them to finish the study by year's end," Haryanto said.

From France, the minister and his entourage will proceed to visit an airport in Frankfurt (Germany) as well as ports in Bremen (Germany) and Amsterdam (the Netherlands) before attending a ceremony for the delivery of a passenger ship bought by the state-owned shipping company Pelni in Papenburg, Germany. (jsk)