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)