Govt approves six Casa-212s for Merpati
Govt approves six Casa-212s for Merpati
JAKARTA (JP): The government has agreed to buy six Casa-212
aircraft for the state-owned carrier Merpati Nusantara Airlines,
Minister for Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said yesterday.
Haryanto told a House of Representatives hearing that the
National Development Planning Board had approved the plan.
"The aircraft will be used to serve pioneer routes," he said.
The minister did not specify when the aircraft would be
delivered to Merpati which lost one of its 11 Casa-212s
yesterday.
Three types of the 22-seater, Casa-212 aircraft are being
manufactured by the state-owned PT IPTN under license from Casa
of Spain with prices ranging from US$250,000 to $4 million.
Haryanto said the government had also agreed to Merpati's plan
to reduce the frequency of flights on some of its routes.
"Merpati is allowed to cut only the flight frequency on some
routes but not to stop services altogether on particular routes,"
he said.
Merpati had planned to stop some 80 flights on unprofitable
routes because of its big losses on pioneer or unviable routes.
Airport
The minister said the Soekarno Hatta airport in Jakarta would
be expanded next year.
"We have to anticipate a bigger number of passenger arrivals
at the airport. Besides, based on a presidential decree, the
Soekarno Hatta airport is designed to occupy a total 3,014
hectares."
The airport now occupied 1,800 hectares so 1,214 more hectares
would have to be appropriated next year, Haryanto said.
He said the Soekarno Hatta airport would have a capacity to
handle 20 million passengers annually by the end of 1997. "The
airport is designed to eventually have a capacity of up to 57
million passengers."
He said the government also planned to expand the Ngurah Rai
airport in Bali.
"A second runway is needed for the Bali airport to accommodate
20 million passengers a year, or four times as much as its
current capacity of 5 million. The expansion will be implemented
on reclaimed land in Benoa," he said.
Haryanto said that land appropriation for the new airport in
Medan, North Sumatra, would be completed by the end of this
month.
The new airport, in Kualanamu, would require 1,365 hectares,
and as of last month 48.08 percent of the site had been
appropriated, he added.
He said the new airport would be built by the state-owned
airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II in cooperation with PT Citra
Lamtoro Gung Persada, a private firm owned by President
Soeharto's eldest daughter, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana.
Haryanto told the hearing that he had signed amendments to
bilateral air agreements with Britain, Australia, Jordan and
Turkey.
Indonesia has the right to fly to four cities in Britain
(London, Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham), while Britain has
the right to fly to Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya and Batam.
Indonesia and Australia agreed to end all flights from
Indonesia to Christmas Islands, he said.
"The two nations also agreed to terminate an agreement signed
in May 1996 regarding Indonesian air carriers' additional flights
to Brisbane, Adelaide, Cairns and Townsville," Haryanto added.
Indonesia and Jordan, he said, had agreed to appoint more than
one air carrier (from each country) to link the two countries
three times a week. The services could be increased to four times
a week by each nations' airlines.
With Turkey, however, Indonesia agreed to appoint just one air
carrier from each country to link the two countries four times
weekly which is extendible to seven times a week. (icn)