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)