Foreign airlines concerned over violence reports
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)