Foreign airlines see improvement in RI flights

JAKARTA (JP): Several foreign airlines have reported a turnaround in their business in Indonesia and expected the revival will continue in line with signs of the country's economic recovery.

An executive at Japan Airlines said the business turnaround was seen in the improving load factor of some major airlines serving the country.

"Japan Airlines itself saw a load factor of 80 percent in July and reached the peak of 95 percent from August to September," he told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

The source, who asked for anonymity, said the Japanese airline expected to see a load factor of between 70 percent and 90 percent until the end of the year.

Air France's customer service manager Nina Soenoto said the airline also experienced a better condition lately with the demand for tickets continuing to increase.

"We now have an average load factor of 85 percent. We expect it to further increase until January next year," she said.

She said Air France had already received lots of group reservations for the year-end session for flights to Singapore and Paris.

The promising signs of economic recovery and the relatively smooth process for the transfer of the transitional government from President B.J. Habibie to a president elected by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) later this month have brought fresh hopes for the establishment of lasting stability in the country, which has been battered by conflicts and chaos.

The promising scenario of the country's stability has led the government to revise upward its prediction on inbound tourist arrivals for 1999 from between 3.9 million and 4.4 million to between five million and 5.5 million.

Data from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture on inbound arrivals through Indonesia's 13 major gateways shows that 1.86 million foreigners, including foreign journalists and United Nations officials who prepared for East Timor's August ballot, visited Indonesia in the first six months of 1999, up by more than 10 percent on 1.69 million visitors the country had in the corresponding period for 1998.

Bali experienced the highest increase, 32.3 percent, in the first half by receiving 683,083 foreigners, while Batam saw a 17 percent increase in the number of foreign visitors to reach 606,188.

Jakarta, however, was still suffering from a decline in inbound tourist arrivals as it experienced a 18.3 percent drop in the number of foreign visitors to 360,186 during the first six months.

The prolonged economic and political crisis that has affected the country since 1997 has resulted in the significant decline in both inbound and outbound traveling in Indonesia, especially Jakarta, forcing some foreign airlines to cut flight frequencies.

Reports said the drop in inbound flights by several foreign airlines operating in the country reached 29.4 percent in 1997 and down to 46.4 percent in 1998.

Among the airlines that cut their flight frequencies was Air France, which reduced its Paris-Singapore-Jakarta flights from six times a week to three times a week in March due to the significant decline in seat demand.

According to Nina, the reduction helped the airline cut operational costs.

However, there were several foreign airlines that had increased their frequencies, such as Japan Airlines and Qantas Airways.

Japan Airlines doubled its flights from Tokyo and Osaka to Indonesia from seven times a week to 14 times a week in March. In October 1998 it launched tour-package flights to Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The source from Japan Airlines said the airline could maintain its load factor and did not have to reduce flights due partly to the success of the tour packages promotion.

"The flights to the two cities alone contributed about 30 percent of the airline's total load factor," he said.

Qantas also increased the number of direct flights to Jakarta and Bali to reach 34 flights in March in a bid to meet the higher demand from Australia for seats to the two tourist spots.

The Indonesian government predicts to receive up to 354,150 international tourists in October, 354,500 in November and 404,530 in December.

British Airways sales manager Caroline Widjaja expressed optimism toward a high load factor at the end of the year.

"Because this is the millennium. Despite the currently very dynamic situation with the country, we remain optimistic that many Indonesians will look forward to getting away from home to celebrate the millennium," she said, adding that British Airways would offer special Millennium Package flights to Europe starting from Dec. 10. (cst)