Merpati may suspend New Year flights

Merpati may suspend New Year flights

By Christiani S.A. Tumelap

SURABAYA (JP): State-owned Merpati Nusantara Airlines, the
country's main domestic airline operator, has announced that some
of its flights may be suspended over New Year, even though all
the airline computer systems were Y2K compliant.

Executive president for operations Moch. Masykoer said on
Friday all computer systems in the airline's fleet, traffic
system and ground management were Y2K compliant.

"From now on, the general public does not have to hesitate
about traveling with us during that particular time," he said
during a media visit to the Merpati Training and Maintenance
Facilities at the Juanda Airport here.

Despite safety assurances from Masykoer, he said that Merpati
was considering suspending flights on New Year's Eve to areas
near Batam such as Pangkal Pinang in Riau province and Medan in
North Sumatra.

He said a further study on the fly zones around the areas was
needed to determine whether it would be safe to fly across the
zone at that particular time.

"We're going to assess the volume of traffic flow and level of
probability of mode failure, as well as the preparedness of the
airport management in each destination area," he said.

Areas near Batam required further study because they were
close to Singapore, a destination known for its very heavy
traffic flow. Masykoer said Singapore was not in direct
coordination with Indonesia in preparing for the Y2K computer
glitch.

He said that on New Year's Eve a one-way, instead of
reciprocal, air traffic flow must be established to avoid a
worst-case scenario -- such as an air collision -- caused by
possible mode failure.

"We may have to suspend flights to several areas if the
traffic there is too crowded or if we are not sure about the
preparedness of the airport system there," he said, adding that
the decision on whether to suspend some flights would be made by
the end of November.

With 270 domestic routes, Merpati operates three international
flights, from Kupang in the East Nusa Tenggara province to Darwin
in Northern Australia, from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia
and from Denpasar to Port Hedland in Western Australia.

Merpati operates at least six night flights to a variety of
destinations including Irian Jaya towns in Jayapura, Biak and
Merauke and the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar (formerly
known as Unjungpandang).

Merpati has a fleet of 71 airplanes: three Boeing 737s, three
Fokker 100s, 23 Fokker 28s, 13 Fokker 27s, 12 CN 235s, nine Casa
and eight DHC Twin Otters.

Merpati currently only operates 31 of the airplanes, with the
remainder grounded due to inability to procure spare parts.

Safer

Masykoer said flights to remote areas, such as in Irian Jaya
as well as Bima and Labuan Bajo in West Nusa Tenggara, would be
safer because the local airports did not use sophisticated
information technology systems vulnerable to Y2K problems.

He said the situation differed from airports with more
sophisticated airport systems and heavier air traffic flow --
factors which made them prone to Y2K problems -- such as in
Jakarta, Surabaya, Bali, Makassar and Medan.

"But the airport authorities in these areas have been
preparing themselves against the Y2K problems, the results of
which are being informed to us. So there is no need to worry
about the safety of flying to these destinations."

The Y2K problems stem from the fact that many computer systems
in use today will encounter difficulties in processing the date
changeover from 1999 to 2000 because they were programmed to read
only the last two digits of a year.

The glitch may cause computers to malfunction or shut down.

The U.S.-based Y2K-compliance monitoring body Gartner Group
said in a recent report that Indonesia was among some 30
developing nations which have the highest risk of Y2K problems.
The body said some 66 percent of businesses could possibly be
affected.

Some commercial and noncommercial institutions, including air
transportation providers, worldwide using computers and
information technology systems have considered putting their
activities on hold, at best, or at worst putting themselves out
of business, during the date rollover to Jan. 1, 2000. The
organizations say that such drastic steps are necessary unless
they manage to solve the so-called millennium bug, or damage
caused by noncompliance of computers and microprocessors in
embedded electronic systems to the Y2K.

In regard to the safety of aircraft, Capt. Bambang Sugiri of
Merpati's Y2K anticipation program team said the Y2K problems
would not have a direct effect on the aircraft.

"It is because almost all of the avionic devices, including
the counter panels for altitude and longitude, timer and counting
systems, were not affected by Y2K since they work individually
and do not depend on computer or information technology systems
like those in use in the office management system," he said.

He said the Y2K anticipation program on aircraft was less
painstaking because it was conducted in cooperation with aircraft
producers and vendors.

Administration

Bambang also said that Merpati had fixed its administration
and management system, including the reservation system,
customers and employees data, payroll data, financial data and
building safety management system.

He said the company had allocated about Rp 1.5 billion (US$2
million) -- about Rp 500 million of which was spent on upgrading
of the airline's computer system -- to anticipate the Y2K
problems.

He said Merpati had cooperated with related partners -- state-
run airline Garuda Indonesia Airways and the state-run airport
management firms Angkasa Pura I and II -- to synchronize the Y2K
anticipation program.

Bambang also said that to ensure safety and avoid any possible
mode failures during the New Year's Eve flights, Merpati would
operate manual procedures for its flights and administration
systems.

"It is a policy of the International Civil Aviation
Association that starting Dec. 31 at 9 p.m. all regional airlines
must operate with manual procedures. The instruction will be
lifted when the association finds it safe to return to full
automatic procedures," he added.