Government to amend old air accords
JAKARTA (JP): The government plans to amend a number of air agreements with several countries to allow foreign air carriers to increase their services to Indonesia, a minister said yesterday.
"By now, Indonesia has signed 53 bilateral air agreements, some of which were signed 20 years ago. After a series of evaluations, we decided to soon hold discussions with the related countries to revise them in a bid to improve air services," Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said in a hearing with Commission V of the House of Representatives, which deals with transportation and tourism.
He said that the planned discussions will include matters about additional services and capacities, the operation of wide- body aircraft and changes of routes.
"Last month, we started a discussion with the Philippines, which will hopefully be accomplished later this year," he said.
Haryanto said earlier that the government will invite more foreign airlines to serve Indonesia with frequent flights to anticipate the country's tourism boom in the Seventh Five Year Development Plan (Repelita VII) period.
He said that domestic airlines, including the country's flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, will be unable to cope with the surging number of foreign visitors to the country during the ongoing Repelita VI period, which will end in 1999, and the following five years, when Indonesia expects more than seven million tourist arrivals per year.
When asked by commission members, Haryanto also said yesterday that Merpati Airlines, a Garuda subsidiary which serves mainly non-profitable domestic frontier routes, is currently in a tight situation because half of its Fokker F-28 aircraft are unable to fly.
"I give up. It's the fate of Merpati as only 13 of its 25 F- 28s can be operated, while Garuda is now resuming a number of domestic routes," he said. "But the government will always support Merpati's efforts to improve efficiency."
He explained that Garuda last year handed over 25 F-28s to Merpati, "but then, after being operated just once, 12 of the aircraft were out of order."
"Some of the F-28s were partly damaged due to recent minor accidents in Yogyakarta and Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi."
Haryanto also said that he has proposed to the National Development Planning Board a budget for the procurement of 10 Casa-212 aircraft which will be used by Merpati to replace its aging Twin Otters.
Merpati, established in 1962, owns 85 passenger aircraft comprising of three Boeing 737-200s, six F-100s, 25 F-28s, 13 Fokker-27s, 14 CN-235s, five Advanced Turbo Propellers (ATPs), 11 Casa-212s and nine Twin Otters.
According to Haryanto, Merpati is currently reducing the number of its routes due to its poor fleet. (icn)