Garuda suspends flights to S'pore

MEDAN, North Sumatra: Garuda Indonesia has temporarily suspended its daily flights from here to Singapore and Malaysia due to a sharp decline in the number of passengers over the last few months, an official said Saturday.

The Garuda sales manager for its Medan office, Arjo K. Bardijan, said the economic crisis and the rupiah's free fall against the U.S. dollar was the main reason for the drop in sales.

Garuda will resume flights to the two countries from Medan on March 1.

The government's Feb. 5 decision to increase the departure tax imposed on residents leaving the country by airplane from Rp 250,000 (US$25) to Rp 1 million may also have had an adverse effect on the number of people traveling abroad.

"I am sure the decline is not caused by the tax," Arjo said firmly.

Arjo disclosed that Garuda was also forced to reduce its flights from Medan to Banda Aceh from two flights to one flight per day.

Normal flights will be resumed when the number of passengers increases, Arjo said. (21/prb)