Merpati flies to more countries and promises better service
By I. Christianto
MELBOURNE, Australia (JP): Merpati Nusantara Airlines, a subsidiary of the national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, is flying to more overseas destinations and planning to be more punctual.
"We are working hard to improve our service, particularly the punctuality of flights," Merpati president, Budiarto Subroto, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday aboard a Merpati Airbus A-310- 300 on the Jakarta-Melbourne route.
He said the thrice-weekly Melbourne service, launched early last month, was part of a campaign to bolster Merpati's image.
"We want to be part of the rapidly growing economy in the Asia-Pacific region. We want to be a major player in the region's aviation industry," Budiarto said.
He said the government had approved Merpati's program to increase its overseas services.
Merpati is facing a tough battle. The airline is known as a carrier which serves mostly domestic feeder routes. And it does not have much money.
The airline's development mission, assigned by the government, has inhibited the airline because it limits the airline to serving pioneering, uncommercial routes in remote areas.
Problems
Besides its unprofitable routes, Merpati is suffering inefficiencies because of its fleet's wide variety of airplanes.
During a House of Representatives hearing earlier this year, Merpati reported its losses had increased to Rp 93.12 billion (US$39.4 million) for last year, up from Rp 88.93 billion for 1994. Its losses are projected to reach Rp 63.74 billion this year.
The company needs more than a Rp 600 billion investment to strengthen its capital structure.
Budiarto said Merpati's maintenance costs were unusually high because of the variety of aircraft in its 80-plane fleet, comprising A-310-300s, B-737-200s, F-28s, F-27s, ATPs, Casa-212s, Twin Otters and CN-235s -- most of which are old.
"The key to win the international competition is qualified human resources," he said, adding that Merpati had about 4,700 staff.
Budiarto said Merpati was planning new routes including Jakarta-Singapore, Jakarta-Hong Kong, Jakarta-Seoul, Denpasar- Bangkok and another service to Japan next year. "In Japan, we plan to fly to Nagoya or Hiroshima."
He said Merpati was reviewing several poor routes. Merpati recently terminated its twice-weekly service from Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara to Darwin, Australia, because few people used it. But it would step-up its lucrative service routes.
"As part of our image improvement, we plan to serve more domestic trunk lines next year from Jakarta to Medan (North Sumatra), Denpasar (Bali), Surabaya (East Java), Ujungpandang (South Sulawesi), Manado (North Sulawesi) and Balikpapan (East Balikpapan)," he said.
"We now ply much more feeder lines than trunk lines," he said.
The domestic trunk lines have been dominated by Garuda and several private airlines, such as Sempati Air, Mandala and Bouraq.
Merpati recently reported that the ratio of canceled and delayed (by over 15 minutes) services was 20 percent of its 490 flights a day to 140 destinations.
Merpati changed its Airbus A-310 jet's seat configuration from its original capacity of 220 seats to only 186 seats to provide more comfort, Budiarto said.
About 70 passengers were aboard its flight to Melbourne on Tuesday, and 37 passengers on the return trip to Jakarta yesterday.
PT Golden Rama Travel senior travel agent Haditono told the Post that Merpati should serve more destinations in Australia. "Many Indonesians prefer to go to the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Sydney. If a tour group has to go back to Melbourne, it will be costly."
"It's common for a new player in a new international route to have a low load factor during its first year of operation," the travel agent said.
Other airlines linking Indonesia and Australia include Qantas (Jakarta-Sydney and Jakarta-Perth), Garuda (from Jakarta to Brisbane, Cairns, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Darwin), Sempati Air (Jakarta-Perth) and Ansett (Jakarta-Sydney, Denpasar-Perth and Denpasar-Darwin).
Besides its service to Australian cities, Merpati also links Bandung in West Java and Singapore seven times a week and Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur seven times a week.
The Jakarta-Melbourne route is Merpati's second service to Australia after its weekly Denpasar-Port Hedland, Western Australia, service.
Budiarto said Merpati would receive the first of three A-300- 600 aircraft today which will be used for its Jakarta-Hong Kong service starting Dec. 22.
The aircraft, like the A-310, is leased from a French firm.
The Hong Kong service will be Merpati's sixth international service after Port Headland, Melbourne and Darwin in Australia, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
Budiarto was optimistic Merpati would improve its image before completely separating from its parent company, Garuda Indonesia.
The government expects to completely separate the two airlines this year. This arduous process has been going since 1993: The airlines have disagreed on asset valuations and credit and debt transactions.
"We have actually started the first stage of our separation because Merpati and Garuda now operate with separate accounting and management systems," Budiarto said.