Merpati reroutes flights

JAKARTA (JP): Merpati Nusantara Airlines, a subsidiary of the national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, will temporarily reroute a number of its flights for the upcoming Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings.

Company spokesman Benny Achmad said yesterday that all flights from the Halim Perdanakusuma airport in East Jakarta will be moved to the Soekarno-Hatta airport in Cengkareng, west of here, on Nov. 13 and 16.

On Nov. 12 and 16, the Jakarta base for flights serving Ketapang in West Kalimantan and Pangkalanbun in East Kalimantan will be moved to Soekarno-Hatta.

Several services on Nov. 12, 14, 15 and 17 will be moved to Soekarno-Hatta as well, but basically the timetables will remain unchanged, he said.

Merpati, currently operating 90 aircraft, will also provide 12 services linking Jakarta and Bandung (West Java) on Nov. 9 and 10 for the special occasion of the rolling out of the N-250 turboprop commuter plane, manufactured by the state-run Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara.(icn)