Govt to revise flight routes

Govt to revise flight routes

JAKARTA (JP): The government will soon revise domestic airline
routes to help reduce costs for passengers due to inefficient
flight operations, an official said.

"The realignment of domestic routes has been completed, but we
cannot announce the changes yet because we are waiting for the
government to issue a regulation on the implementation of law No.
15/1992 on air transportation," Director General of Air
Transportation Zainudin Sikado said here yesterday.

He said the revision will allow 14 new routes to open as well
as the introduction of new direct routes between cities in the
country.

For example, the re-routing will introduce direct flights
between Medan in North Sumatra and Ujungpandang in South Sulawesi
with no stopover in Jakarta.

"We are committed to reducing stopovers, which will certainly
reduce costs for passengers," he said after opening an annual
meeting of a state-owned airport management company, PT Angkasa
Pura II, at its headquarters at the Soekarno-Hatta airport here.

He said the new routes are expected to meet the rising demand
from passengers and airlines, some of which have strengthened
their fleets with new aircraft.

"Most of our private airliners are now capable of operating
wide-body jets which can serve long distances," he said.

Zainudin declined to elaborate on the details of the new
routes.

But he expects that the new routes will promote
competitiveness among the airlines to improve their fleets,
instead of competing in discount-based travel packages.

He added that the revised routes are now being offered to
domestic airlines through the Association of Indonesian Airliners
(Inaca). (fhp)