Merpati to fly thrice weekly to Melbourne
Merpati to fly thrice weekly to Melbourne
JAKARTA (JP): Merpati Nusantara Airlines, a Garuda Indonesia
subsidiary assigned to serve pioneering domestic routes, will fly
thrice weekly to Melbourne beginning early next month by
operating an aging airbus.
Merpati is the only carrier assigned to serve pioneering
routes, mostly in remote areas where there are fewer passengers,
causing the carrier to suffer continuous losses.
The Jakarta-Melbourne route will be Merpati's third service to
Australia after the Kupang-Darwin (twice a week) and Denpasar-
Port Hedland, Western Australia (once a week) services.
In serving the new route, scheduled to commence on Aug. 6,
Merpati will operate a wide-body A-310-300 aircraft manufactured
in 1990 by the France-based Airbus Industrie.
Merpati has ordered three A-310-300s to serve new routes under
its fleet expansion plan.
Merpati's president Budiarto Subroto said that his company had
bought the 186-seat A-310-300s through a French financing
company. He refused to disclose the name of the company and the
amount of financing.
"The contract for the financing was signed earlier this year,"
he said, adding that the first aircraft was scheduled to arrive
here on July 31.
He said that for its expansion plan, 128 of Merpati's
stewardesses and eight pilots were recently trained by Singapore
Airlines and Swissair.
The A-310 series airbuses, with an original configuration of
220 seats, have been most profitable to airlines.
Merpati currently operates 85 aircraft of various types,
mostly aging aircraft. The company's current fleet comprises
three B-737-200s, six F-100s, 25 F-28s, 13 F-27s, 14 CN-235s,
five ATPs, 11 Casa-212s and eight Twin Otters.
Out of the aircraft, 17 aging F-28s and 14 IPTN-made CN-235s
are government equity participation in the air carrier.
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).
In addition to the service to Australian cities, Merpati also
links Bandung in West Java and Singapore seven times per week and
Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur seven times per week.
The government has also licensed Merpati and Sempati to fly to
Britain within the next few years. Garuda is currently the only
Indonesian carrier flying to Britain.
In a hearing with the House of Representatives last February,
Merpati reported that its losses increased to Rp 93.12 billion
($40 million) last year from Rp 88.93 billion in 1994. Its losses
are projected to reach Rp 63.74 billion this year. (icn)