Merpati serves new domestic routes

JAKARTA (JP): Merpati Nusantara Airlines, one of the country's six scheduled air carriers, as of tomorrow will start serving three new domestic routes from the Halim Perdanakusuma airport in East Jakarta by operating CN-235 aircraft.

Merpati's spokesman, Agus Sudjono, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the new routes include Jakarta-Yogyakarta, Jakarta-Semarang (Central Java) and Jakarta-Pangkalpinang on Bangka island in South Sumatra.

Agus said that Merpati will serve the Jakarta-Yogyakarta route seven times per week, in which the 36-seat CN-235 will depart from Halim Perdanakusuma at 11:10 a.m. and will then depart from the Adi Sucipto airport in Yogyakarta at 1:20 p.m.

He said that the airline will serve the Jakarta-Semarang route twice daily, except Wednesdays and Saturday when it will be served only once. The aircraft will depart from Halim Perdanakusuma at 7:15 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. and will depart from the Ahmad Yani airport in Semarang at 9:10 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.

Meanwhile, Merpati will serve the Jakarta-Pangkalpinang route five times weekly--every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday--with the flight departing at 8:00 a.m. from Halim Perdanakusuma and at 10:10 a.m from Pangkalpinang.

Agus said the additional flights will give passengers more alternatives for going to Yogyakarta, Semarang and Pangkalpinang with Merpati, a subsidiary of the national air carrier Garuda Indonesia.

Since July last year, Merpati has been serving Yogyakarta twice daily by Fokker F-100 jets from the Soekarno-Hatta airport, west of Jakarta. The airline also links Jakarta and Semarang and Pangkalpinang from Soekarno-Hatta by F-28s.

Merpati operates 87 passenger aircraft, comprising of three Boeing 737-200s, six F-100s, 25 F-28s, 13 Fokker-27s, 14 CN-235s, five Advanced Turbo Propellers, 11 Cassa-212s and 10 Twin Otters.

CN-235 aircraft, assembled by the Bandung-based aircraft manufacturer IPTN in cooperation with Cassa of Spain, are currently operated for short and medium routes including Jakarta- Tanjungkarang (Lampung), Jakarta-Bandung (West Java), Denpasar (Bali)-Ampenan (West Nusa Tenggara), Jakarta-Pangkalanbun (Central Kalimantan) and Jakarta-Cilacap (Central Java).(icn)