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)