New airline AdamAir to fly over Indonesia

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia's newest domestic airline takes off next Monday, equipped with near-new Boeing 747-400 and Boeing 737-500 aircraft, Golkar party support, and bearing the name of the airline's 24-year-old president director.

PT Adam SkyConnections Airlines introduced on Wednesday its flight service, AdamAir, which will ply several domestic routes.

"Our company still sees a big opportunity in the business, particularly for airlines that offer safety to passengers," AdamAir spokesman Leo Nababan told The Jakarta Post.

He said the airline was to be the first private airline in the country to use Boeing 737-400 and Boeing 737-500 made between 1997 and 2000.

Leo believed that by using the relatively new aircraft, passenger safety was more assured.

AdamAir will initially fly from Jakarta to Medan, but is expecting to expand its flights from Jakarta to Ujung Pandang, Surabaya and Yogyakarta. No timetable has been set for the flights, except that Jakarta-Medan flights will start on Dec. 20.

AdamAir, which is targeting a market share of between 15 percent and 20 percent by the end of 2004, will sell tickets for prices that are "not very high and not very low," Leo said, without elaborating.

The firm is a family-owned business with Adam Adhitya Suherman, 24, serving as president director. His mother Sandra Ang and brother Gunawan Suherman are members of the board of commissioners, which is chaired by Agung Laksono, a leader of the Golkar party.

Asked about the family's experience in running an airline business, Leo said Sandra had been involved in several private airline businesses but he refused to elaborate.

To introduce its service to the public, AdamAir will launch a return flight from Jakarta to Balikpapan on Dec. 15, carrying invited guests, including some "very, very important people." The Jakarta-Balikpapan flight will not be a regular route.

"We will have House of Representative's Speaker Akbar Tandjung as our honorary passenger on the Jakarta-Balikpapan flight," Leo said.