Foreign airlines concerned over violence reports
JAKARTA (JP): Foreign carriers are concerned over reports of increasing violence in Indonesia, saying this may worsen their already sluggish businesses in the country.
The airlines top executives said intensifying reports of riots, a growing crime rate, and student protests in the country may further deter people from visiting Indonesia, especially the capital city.
"People are putting off traveling here," Singapore Air General Manager Vijendran Alfred told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Alfred pointed to reports of crimes committed against motorists on the tollway linking the Soekarno-Hatta airport to Jakarta's downtown as a particular concern of the foreign community.
Lufthansa's General Manager in Indonesia, Carlos Heinemann said tollway security was very crucial for incoming visitors.
"Security on the tollway between the airport and downtown is most sensitive for visitors," Heinemann said.
During the riotous outbreaks at several spots in Jakarta on Nov. 14 -- a day after a fatal military shooting of student protesters claimed at least 7 students' lives -- some passengers of Lufthansa had to fly back to Singapore because the roads to the city had been closed, Heinemann said.
During unrest, some toll road sectors -- having been abandoned by their operators -- are often blocked by packs of people who extort from or rob passing motorists.
The decade's worst economic crisis, now over a year old, has created soaring crime rates in Jakarta.
However, Alfred said some isolated cases had misled international travelers to thinking it was a widespread phenomenon in the city.
Cathay Pacific General Manager in Indonesia, Clement Lam, said the situation had made it harder to sell Jakarta.
"Firstly, Jakarta is not an easy destination to sell in terms of tourism any more, then the riots and crimes have had an adverse effect on the country," Lam said Friday after the airline's launching ceremony for a new route.
The airlines said the riots in the last two weeks had not caused a significant drop in incoming passengers so far.
"Our load factor only dropped by 2-3 percentage points from an average of over 70 percent in the last two weeks," Alfred said.
The drop was caused mostly by the economic slump.
Before the crisis, SQ's load factor of its Jakarta flights stood at about 80 percent, he said.
When the riots broke out in May, leading to president Soeharto's resignation, the airline suffered its worst hit, with a load factor sometimes lower than 50 percent due to the rupiah's fluctuation.
Between May and October, the rupiah sank to about Rp 12,000, compared to Rp 2,500 in August last year. It has since strengthened to around Rp 7,000.
Alfred said since the rupiah strengthened, the load factor had gradually climbed to about 70 percent, before dropping again.
Lam said load factors of Cathay's daily morning flights from Jakarta to Hong Kong via Singapore reached between 50 and 60 percent.
However, the carrier's incoming flights as well as the thrice- a-week non-stop flights to Hong Kong only reached 30 to 40 percent.
Heinemann admitted there had been a significant decline in the number of passengers to Jakarta since the May riots, shown by a series of group cancellations.
However, the number of German visitors to Bali had picked up, as Lufthansa passengers avoided going to Jakarta by flying direct to Bali from Singapore, he said.
Lufthansa flies from Frankfurt direct to Jakarta four times a week. It also operates a code-sharing deal with Singapore Air to carry Lufthansa passengers from Singapore to Indonesia.
"We're actually just picking up again. It's not back to normal, but it's not that nobody's coming in either," he said.
Slowing business had prompted Cathay Pacific to slash its services to 10 times a week from 14 times on Nov. 1. It had also cut its weekly flights to Surabaya to two from three times a week. (das)