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.