RI to grant SIA more seats to Bali

RI to grant SIA more seats to Bali

JAKARTA: Indonesia will grant Singapore Airlines Ltd. and the city-state's other full-service airlines permission to offer more seats to Bali and Jakarta to boost tourism, two days after suicide bombers killed 22 people in the famed beach resort.

Singapore Air, Asia's largest airline by market value, will be allowed to raise its seat capacity by 15 percent on flights to the Indonesian capital and Denpasar in Bali, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said after meeting Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Bali.

The government limits the number of seats overseas airlines can sell on routes to Indonesian cities to help state-owned PT Garuda Indonesia compete. The quotas, applied to individual cities, are negotiated between governments, Transport Minister Hatta Rajasa said on May 20. -- Bloomberg