North Sumatra Airlines takes to the skies

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Newly established Sumut Airlines made its maiden flight on Friday from the provincial capital, Medan, to Pinangsari, Central Tapanuli, also in North Sumatra, using a Fokker 27 aircraft.

Deputy governor Lundu Panjaitan, provincial House Speaker Ahmad Azhari and regents from South Tapanuli, Mandailing Natal, North Tapanuli, Nias and Sibolga, as well as 15 businesspeople from Malaysia, were passengers on the flight. The organizers included the North Sumatra administration and Malaysian-based company PT Rabin Global Servindo.

They were greeted by Governor T. Rizal Nurdin and Central Tapanuli regent Tuani Lumbantobing at Pinang Sori airport.

Budi Sinulingga, chairman of the North Sumatra Development Planning Board, said that the 30-minute test flight would help the North Sumatra administration and authorities of western coastal areas to assess the flight's comfort and arrival time.

"The new airline makes remote and isolated west coast areas more accessible and easily reachable by businesspeople. But the administration has yet to decide the kind of airplane that Sumut Airlines will use," he said.

Sumut Airlines, which is jointly owned by the North Sumatra administration, regencies in the western coast areas, and a Malaysian company, PT Rabin Global, is currently using a Fokker 27 airplane owned by PT Rabin Global, plus another owned by state aircraft manufacturer P.T. Dirgantara Indonesia.

According to Budi, each regency and mayoralty in North Sumatra had to contribute Rp 3.5 billion to Sumut Airlines every year for its operational expenditure.

"We don't know when this airline is going to earn profits and when the loans will be repaid," said Budi, adding that the funds had been taken from the development budget allocation of each regency and mayoralty.

Sumut Airlines has to discuss with provincial and regency administrations the loan repayment mechanism.

Separately, Polin Pos-pos, coordinator of the governor's expert staff, suggested that the provincial administration produce a good business plan to attract investors to the airline.

"This is so that we can maintain the airline's operations and prevent it from collapsing in the immediate future," he said.

Meanwhile, businesspeople in the province were optimistic that the new airline would boost the province's economic growth, especially in tourism and small-scale industries.

"Usually it takes seven hours to reach Central Tapanuli from Medan using land transportation. Now, it takes only 30 minutes. I believe that there are many investors interested in doing business there," said Erry Nuriadi, chairman of the North Sumatra chapter of the Association of Young Indonesian Entrepreneurs (HIPMI).