Papuan airline latest to enter local market

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Starting March 18, 2004, the privately owned Efata Papua Airline will launch its inaugural flight from Jakarta to Jayapura in Papua, a company spokesman said.

Efata Papua marketing manager Sedar Pribadi said on Monday that this route would be the only one the airline would be serving for the time being.

"At present, the company intends to only establish one route, connecting Jakarta with Jayapura, with a number of stopovers," said Sedar.

The service will have stopovers in Surabaya, Makassar (South Sulawesi), Biak and Timika (both in Papua), and will involve three flights per week.

The service will be operated by a 150-seat Boeing 727 aircraft, a jet carrier once used by the former Yugoslavia's late strongman Josip Broz Tito. Out of the 150 seats, 138 are devoted to economy class and 12 to business class.

Efata Papua, controlled by several Papuan businessmen, is one of a dozen new carriers that have sprung up since Indonesia's airline sector was deregulated four years ago. The move has sparked a surge in scheduled flights, sharp drops in ticket prices and record passenger traffic growth.

Data from the Ministry of Communications shows that the low- cost concept increased the number of domestic passengers to 16.5 million in 2003 from 12.3 million in 2002. In 2004, the number is predicted to surge even further to 20 million.