Jakartans rush after holidays
Jakartans rush after holidays
M. Taufiqurrahman and Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta/Bogor
Thousands of holidaymakers returned to Jakarta on Sunday after
spending their New Year's holidays in numerous tourist
destinations in the country.
Several airlines claimed that flights from the holiday
destinations of Denpasar, Yogyakarta, Surakarta and Batam to
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport were fully booked, while
state train company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (PT KAI) had to add
more cars to anticipate the increasing number of passengers
returning to the capital.
National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia said that almost all
flights to Jakarta were fully booked, with only few vacant seats
available on some flights.
"The load factor of flights from places like Denpasar and
Batam reached 100 percent. In fact, we had to turn away a number
of would-be passengers," an official with Garuda at Soekarno-
Hatta Airport told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Domestic flag carrier Merpati Nusantara experienced the same
condition.
"The load factor of our 22 flights ranges between 80 percent
and 90 percent. Our Boeing 737 plying the Denpasar-Jakarta route,
with a seat capacity of 158, carried 155 passengers on board,"
said Situmorang, a staffer with the airline's transfer desk for
domestic flights.
He said that on regular weekdays the number of passengers
reached around 120.
Meanwhile, Lion Air public relations manager Hasyim A. Alhabsi
said there had been an increase of up to 50 percent in the number
of passengers returning to Jakarta.
The airline industry predicted a windfall profit by year-end
2003 as a large number of people traveled across the country and
overseas to celebrate Idul Fitri, Christmas and the New Year
holidays.
More cars were added to executive trains heading to Jakarta
from popular destinations Yogyakarta, Surakarta and Bandung.
Fahruddin, a train dispatcher at Gambir Railway Station,
predicted that the number of holidaymakers returning by train
would peak on Sunday evening.
In the Puncak mountain resort, vehicles were moving at snail's
pace as holidaymakers started to return home.
At around 3 p.m., the flow of vehicles ran at between 40
kilometers per hour (kph) and 50 kph, a police officer said.
"Around 30 vehicles pass along the Puncak road per minute,"
Second Insp. Maria H. Hera said.
She said that to ease congestion, which was expected to be
heavier in the evening, the road would be one-way for traffic
heading to Jakarta from 4:30 p.m. onwards. Vehicles from Jakarta,
heading to Puncak and Bandung, had to pass through Ciawi.