North Sumatra Airlines takes to the skies
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).