New airline AdamAir to fly over Indonesia
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.