Merpati resumes Bandung-S'pore route flights after seven years

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

After a hiatus of seven years, domestic airline company Merpati Nusantara has resumed servicing direct flights between the West Java city of Bandung and Singapore.

Operational director Harry Parjama said on Monday at Bandung's Husein Sastranegara Airport that the firm saw the route as a promising market.

"Today, there are about 24,000 Indonesians with Bandung passports traveling from Jakarta to Changi each month. This indicates that there is indeed a promising market for us," Harry said during the route's soft launch on Monday.

The airline actually serviced the route in the early 1990s but was suspended in the wake of the country's massive financial crisis in 1997-1998.

Merpati will now fly from Bandung to Singapore four times a week using a 105-passenger Boeing 737-200. A round trip will cost US$178.

"Given current market conditions, we are targeting an occupancy rate of between 70 and 80 percent, which should bode well for our next target of increasing the flight services from four times a week to twice a day," Merpati's corporate secretary Joko Pujiono said.

Elsewhere, Harry joined the chorus of pleas from the country's airline industry for the government to abolish, or at least reduce, the so-called fiskal (departure) tax -- a Rp 1 million (about $104) fee the government imposes on residents wishing to travel overseas.

"Maybe Rp 500,000 is enough," Harry said.

Merpati will be the only airline with direct flights from Bandung to the city-state.