Merpati to open Denpasar-Broome flights

JAKARTA (JP): Merpati Nusantara Airlines would open flights connecting Denpasar, Bali with Broome, Western Australia on Wednesdays and Saturdays starting later this month, the company announced yesterday.

"This route has potential and has not yet been plied by either local or Australian carriers or other countries' airlines," head of Merpati's Denpasar representative office Hartono Soerono was quoted by Antara as saying yesterday.

Hartono said Merpati would use Fokker 28 aircraft to fly the route with the maiden flight scheduled for Nov. 29.

He said the route was attractive because Broome was a tourist destination as well as a place for foreign investment.

"Some Indonesian businesspeople own land in the area," he said.

Merpati already services a Denpasar-Melbourne route.

Meanwhile, Merpati's representative office in Jambi announced yesterday that it planned to resume its Jambi-Jakarta and Jambi- Batam flights which had been put on hold since early September due to the haze.

Head of Merpati's Jambi representative office Ahmad Fauzi said Merpati would continue the routes starting Nov. 16 as the haze, which had blanketed the province as well as neighboring areas and countries, had increasingly disappeared.

Jambi's Sultan Thaha Airport said visibility there was four kilometers on Thursday morning -- enough for flying Fokker 28 aircraft, the type used by Merpati in Jambi.

The airport's meteorological head, Aryana Yasin, said the haze had been disappearing because of rains that had poured on Jambi from Tuesday to Thursday.

Aryana said weather patterns showed that the rainy season was about to begin in Jambi soon.

Ahmad said the Jambi-Jakarta and Jambi-Batam routes would be closed again if haze covered the airport in the future.

Merpati services the Jambi-Jakarta route twice a day and the Jambi-Batam route twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays. (jsk)