Garuda considering cutting int'l flights

Garuda considering cutting int'l flights

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The national air carrier Garuda is considering a steep cut of its international flights to many international destinations as the number of passengers is declining following the deadly bomb attack in Bali.

Bahrul Hakim, Garuda's business director, said some 40 percent of passengers from Australia, who had reserved flights, canceled their trips after the incident, which took more than 180 lives, including perhaps 100 Australians. Australia is Garuda's largest market.

"We will closely monitor all developments. If it continues to drop, we might consider cutting flights to affected international destinations," Bahrul told reporters on Thursday after airline industry seminar.

Many passengers from Japan and Europe -- which are Garuda's second and third largest markets -- had also canceled their flights, he said, but he did not provide details.

At present, around 60 to 70 percent of Garuda's international flights fly directly to Denpasar.

Garuda has 15 flights directly to and from Denpasar to six major cities in Australia and one flight to New Zealand. While to Japan, Garuda flies 13 times a week to four major cities in the country.

Following the Bali incident, Santoso Eddy Wibowo, air transportation director at the Ministry of Transportation, said international passengers would likely grow only five percent this year, as against the initial target of 8.6 percent.

Last year, growth reached eight percent, despite terror fears following Sept. 11.

According to Susanto, the number of international passengers last year reached 4.5 million people. The National Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded 2.8 million international passengers as of July 2002.

Meanwhile, data from the Indonesian Cultural and Tourism Board (ICTB) which was made available on Thursday, said international arrivals in Bali averaged 4,650 per day in the period of between Oct. 1 to Oct. 13. On Oct. 14, two days after the attack, international arrivals reached 5,219, a figure which could be attributed to people on official business as a result of the blast such as police, doctors, journalists, etc. The number dropped markedly to 2,833 the the following day.

On the Oct. 1-13 period, departures in Bali averaged 5,286. But, the figure rose to 7,249 on Oct. 14 and 6,471 the following day.

Most of the tourists who left on Oct. 14 and 15 were from Australia, Japan, Taiwan and the United States, according to the data.

Hotel occupancy rates in Bali, which were averaging some 70 percent before the attack, dropped immediately to 61.7 percent on Oct. 14 and further declined to 55.81 percent on the following day.

Deputy of ICTB for the Development of Tourism Resources and Promotion Division Myra Gunawan told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that his data seemed to indicate that the tragedy caused only a slight decrease in tourist arrivals in Bali.

This indicated that Bali was still attractive enough despite the incident.

Myra said many tourists who travel in groups arranged by travel agencies had canceled their trips to Bali, but individual tourists were still arriving.

Separately, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Sapta Nirwandar said the shock caused by the attack was likely to linger for months.

But, situations will gradually change, he said.

"I hope tourism in Bali will start recovering six months from now," said Sapta.