Merpati to open Denpasar-Broome flights

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)