Int'l flights good sign for Yogyakarta

Int'l flights good sign for Yogyakarta

Slamet Susanto and Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

After struggling for over 30 years to realize its dream of having an international airport of its own, Yogyakarta's wishes will soon come true.

Today, Feb. 21, 2004, Adisucipto Airport launches its first international connection to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with national flag carrier Garuda.

Preparations have been made prior to the first international flight, including arranging a special greeting ceremony for the Malaysian delegates who will come to the city on launch day on board the same plane to be used for the first Yogyakarta to Kuala Lumpur flight from the airport. The delegates are scheduled to stay for three days in the sultanate city to enjoy its tourist attractions and those of its surroundings.

Many, including Yogyakarta provincial secretary Bambang Susanto Priyohadi, have expressed optimism that the new status of Adisucipto Airport will have a significant influence on economic development of the province.

"We dream of making Yogykarta a service city, in which various products from the neighboring cities of Central Java, such as Surakarta and Wonosobo, will be distributed through Adisucipto Airport," Bambang told The Jakarta Post in an interview.

Bambang had high hopes that within five years such a plan would come true.

Discussion with the target regions, including Wonosobo for its mushroom products and Surakarta for its fish processing companies, according to Bambang, had also taken place.

"Singapore, for example, has expressed a commitment to buying freshwater lobster products. The prospects for others, including handicrafts, vegetables and tourism, I think, will be just as good. All will generate profits," Bambang said optimistically.

Bambang added that to support the plan, a number of new international connections would also be opened in cooperation with airlines. These include connections to Singapore, Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Perth.

Other preparations, he said, included the provision of supporting infrastructure such as an international terminal, cargo terminals, an immigration office, a quarantine office and fiscal counters, all to international standards.

"We have done it in cooperation with PT Angkasa Pura. An international team also came to inspect the facilities and declared they merited the status (of an international airport)," said Bambang, adding that the airport would be expanded to the north where malls and shopping centers would be built to make it a multifunction airport.

Garuda Indonesia Yogyakarta general manager Singgih Prawatyo also expressed the same optimism, arguing that the market for international flights in the city was crystal clear. One, he said, was migrant workers, hailing from Central Java. The province had dispatched hundreds of thousands of migrant workers every year but they departed mainly through Jakarta's Soekarno- Hatta International Airport.

"If previously, migrant workers departed from Jakarta, I'm sure they will depart from Yogyakarta from now on. Besides being nearer, it will also be much cheaper to depart from here. This is certainly a market with much potential, besides businesspeople and tourists," Singgih said.

The fact that over one-third of the first 90 passengers to go to Kuala Lumpur from Yogyakarta would be migrant workers, he said, further confirmed his optimism. Of the 90 initial passengers, 39 were workers due to be employed in Malaysia.

"The Yogyakarta provincial manpower office also recorded that some 4,000 workers from the area have been sent to Malaysia every year," he said.

A Garuda Boeing 737-300 airbus will fly from Yogyakarta to Kuala Lumpur three times per week. The remaining four days of the week will be for the Semarang, Central Java, to Kuala Lumpur route.

"We shall increase the flight frequency if we assess that the Yogyakarta to Kuala Lumpur route is a success, which we feel certain it will be, especially as many Malaysian students study in Yogyakarta, and vice versa," Singgih said.

Similarly, head of the Yogyakarta provincial trade office Syahbenol said that the province's economic wheels would turn much more rapidly with the new status of the airport, as commodities could be exported more quickly. With three flights a week to Kuala Lumpur, he said, some 38 tons of commodities could be exported to Malaysia per month.

"The Sadeng is this a trade name or a fish type? If the latter, should be capitalized; if latter, uncapitalized fish product, which has been difficult to market abroad due to the lack of speedy transportation, can be transported to Malaysia soon, not to mention large orders of handicraft products from Malaysia," Syahbenol said.

With direct international flights, said Syahbenol, Yogyakarta need not be dependent upon regional flights such as those from Bali and Jakarta, which had so far been the main entry point to Yogyakarta.

"I'm certain that economic growth here will increase two or three times more than hitherto, from 4 percent per year previously to 8 percent to 12 percent per year in the future," he said.

Chairman of the Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants Association (PHRI) of Yogyakarta Stef B. Indarto emphasized, however, that the most important thing to consider was the readiness of Yogyakarta people, especially those in tourism-related businesses.

"An international direct flight will bring extraordinary changes. We must therefore be ready for it, both mentally and professionally," he said.