Pertamina's airline may start scheduled services

JAKARTA (JP): Pelita Air Service, a chartered airline belonging to state-owned Pertamina oil company, is gearing up to serve domestic and regional scheduled services abandoned by other domestic airlines.

Ministry of Transportation and Communication secretary-general Anwar Supriyadi told Neraca on Friday that the government had in principle agreed on Pelita's plan to operate scheduled services and a license was being processed.

Anwar said the economic crisis had forced domestic airlines to reduce service, which cut off air links to several towns.

After Sempati Air's bankruptcy last year, domestic scheduled air services were now being plied by Garuda Indonesia Airways, Mandala Airlines, Merpati Nusantara Airlines, Bouraq Airlines and Dirgantara Air Service.

Merpati cut its flight routes to 130 from 210 due to a shortage of planes as the rupiah meltdown forced it to reduce its fleet capacity from 90 to 29.

Anwar said the government would not protect state airline companies and would allow charter companies to enter scheduled services provided they fulfilled the licensing requirements.

Meanwhile, Garuda reportedly plans to move the hub for its international flights from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport to Bali's Ngurah Rai airport.

Garuda would also move the hub for its London and United States West Coast services from Jakarta to Denpasar, Bali, I. Dewa Putu Suma, chief of the Bali office of the transportation and communications ministry, said in Denpasar.

Suma told Bisnis Indonesia that Garuda earlier handled most of its flight services to Australia and Japan from Ngurah Rai.

He added a Garuda management team recently met with Governor Dewa Made Beratha of Bali to discuss the plan to move the handling center for most of its international services to Ngurah Rai.

"Garuda considered Ngurah Rai more strategically located between Australia and ASEAN countries to make the distribution of passengers easier and more efficient," Suma said.

Moreover, he added, most of Garuda's monthly 350,000 international passengers disembarked in Bali with only a small portion choosing Jakarta as their final destination. (02)