Sempati receives new Fokker 70s to expand service
Sempati receives new Fokker 70s to expand service
JAKARTA (JP): Sempati Air, one of the country's six scheduled
air carriers, will be able to expand its domestic services with
the arrival of six new jetliners.
The company's corporate secretary Gde Suardhika told The
Jakarta Post here yesterday that Sempati expects the arrival of
its new Fokker 70 aircraft today, which left Amsterdam for
Jakarta via Rhodes of Greece, Abu Dhabi of the United Arab
Emirates and Colombo of Sri Lanka.
He said that Sempati will operate the aircraft on the Jakarta-
Ambon, Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur, Surabaya-Batam or Singapore-Ampenan
routes.
"Fokker-70, a member of Fokker 100 aircraft, has a cruise
speed of 3,595 kilometers per hour. We will become more
competitive by operating such a new aircraft," he said.
Suardhika said that Sempati, which currently serves 25 cities
in Indonesia and five cities abroad including Singapore, Taipei,
Perth, Kuala Lumpur and Penang, has ordered six Fokker 70
aircraft from the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker Aircraft
Services.
"We will be in a better position to compete when the system of
endorsable tickets is applied to domestic airlines this year," he
said.
The second Fokker 70 is expected here in the next two weeks
and the other four within the next few months.
The F-70 is a new generation fan jet with a 79-seat capacity.
This smaller JetLine family member of the Fokker 100 has been
developed in response to the airline industry's urgent need for
an economical 70 to 80-seat fan jet.
Since the launch of the program in June 1993, the F-70 has
attracted 29 firm orders from customers in Asia, Europe and the
United States.
The first series of the new F-70 fan jet took to the air in
July last year, about one month ahead of schedule.
Sempati has ordered the Fokker 70s with a configuration of
just 74 seats, allowing each passenger to enjoy individual
private video.
Suardhika refused to give financial details about the Fokker
70 purchase and said only that his company procured the aircraft
under a financial lease plan with Fokker.
The seven-year-old Sempati is 25 percent owned by Humpuss
group, a diversified business conglomerate controlled by
President Soeharto's youngest son Hutomo Mandala Putra, 40
percent by PT Tri Usaha Bakti, a holding company of the Armed
Forces and 35 percent by Nusamba Group, chaired by the country's
timber tycoon Mohammad (Bob) Hasan.
The company's profit increased to Rp 19 billion in 1993
(US$8.63 million) from Rp 12.4 billion ($5.63 million) in 1992.
"Last year's financial report is still being audited,"
Suardhika said, adding that the company expected an annual profit
growth of 50 percent.
He added that the airline's domestic and regional load factor
reached, on average, 60 percent, though several routes reached 70
percent.
Sempati carried 2.4 million passengers in 1993 and 3.2 million
passengers in 1994. It currently operates five Fokker 27s, seven
Fokker 100s, six Boeing 737-200s and three Airbus 300-B4s.(icn)