Garuda puts on 36 extra flights during holidays

Garuda puts on 36 extra flights during holidays

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will
operate 36 extra flights on five local and one international
route to meet an expected surge in passenger load during the
year-end and Idul Fitri holiday.

Garuda's vice president of commerce Bachrul Hakim said on
Friday the airline would use wide-bodied aircraft for the extra
flights, which would increase capacity by 9,640 seats on the six
destinations.

He said the additional flights were scheduled for Jakarta to
Yoygakarta, Surakarta, Palembang, Pekanbaru, Riau and Denpasar,
as well as from Denpasar to Singapore.

"There will be no increase in the ticket price whatsoever.
But, since bookings for Christmas, New Year and Lebaran (Idul
Fitri) holidays are almost filled up, you'd better book now
because they will run out very quickly," he told a media
briefing.

The end-of-year holidays will be much longer this year as the
Idul Fitri celebration will take place only a week after New
Year.

Bachrul appealed to prospective passengers to buy the tickets
from authorized agents, not from ticket scalpers, to ensure they
would not experience difficulties with the airline's planned
stricter identification check of passengers and their tickets at
boarding gates.

He said the estimated increase in the airline's passengers
during this year's holiday season would likely be lower than last
year's because most people were still putting off air travel
during the crisis.

As for flights on New Year's Eve, Bachrul said Garuda would
not make any changes in its schedule except for the departure
time for its flights to Japan on Dec. 31, which would be delayed
until the early hours of Jan. 1, 2000.

"We don't naturally have domestic service at midnight. So, the
Y2K computer glitch will have no affect on our flights. After
all, we have prepared ourselves for Y2K problems," he added.

Garuda lost US$46.4 million in 1998 due to the collapse of
rupiah against the greenback beginning in 1997.

In a bid to keep its fleet afloat, Garuda has cut 40 percent
of its international flights, trimmed down its fleet capacity
from 58 aircraft in 1997 to 42 this year, clipped the frequency
of some domestic flights and shrunk the number of employees from
14,000 in 1997 to 9,764 in June this year.

Despite the efforts, Garuda is still burdened by $1.8 billion
in debts, some $422 million of which was handled by the
government.

The company, however, said it began to see positive
indications of growth, with load factors rising to an average 73
percent in the first half of the year from an average 68 percent
last year.

After enduring a net loss since 1990, Garuda said it would be
able to book a net profit of $34 million from a predicted $687
million in total operating revenues this year. (cst)