Lufthansa eyes Surabaya for new service

JAKARTA (JP): Lufthansa German Airlines is looking to expand its Indonesian services to include Surabaya in East Java, an airline executive said yesterday.

Lufthansa's general manager in Indonesia, Peter Emmerich, said the planned Surabaya route would be an addition to the airline' flights to Frankfurt from Jakarta and Denpasar in Bali.

"We are interested in Surabaya because it is a rapidly growing city," Emmerich said.

Lufthansa already has an office in Surabaya.

He did not say when the plan would be realized.

"We are still looking at possibilities now. It may not be in the near future as there may not be as many passengers from the area as we expect," he said.

Emmerich said Surabaya was more economically feasible to expand into than other cities like Medan in North Sumatra or the rapidly developing Batam island in Riau province.

Lufthansa connects Indonesia with Frankfurt nine times a week with Boeing 747-400 services from Jakarta and Denpasar.

Starting today, the airline will split seven of its Jakarta- Frankfurt flights, stopping in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The flights to Frankfurt will stop in Kuala Lumpur on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Sundays and in Singapore on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

Emmerich said the airline's service in Indonesia had rapidly improved since he first managed the Indonesian branch in 1993.

"When I arrived in Jakarta with my new position, Lufthansa was operating only three flights to and from the country," he said.

The number grew to nine flights last November.

Last year, the airline carried about 80,000 passengers to and from Indonesia, he said.

Emmerich said the airline carried roughly an equal number of business passengers and tourists.

The number of business class seats on flights ranges between 51 and 160, and the number of economy class seats ranges between 165 and 312 seats.

"This way, we will not depend only on high tourist seasons nor will we depend on the business passengers, which would mean we have to rely on the economic conditions of the country," he said.

Lufthansa is a private airline with only 35 percent of its shares owned by the government. (02)