Seven new airlines set to take to the skies

Seven new airlines set to take to the skies

Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Seven new airlines are set to enter the domestic airline market
despite the already stiff competition in the industry, which has
been weakened by years of economic hardship at home.

According to data from the Directorate General of Air
Transportation at the Ministry of Transportation, the seven new
airlines are Alatief Alair International, Asia Avia Megatama,
Bali International Air Services, Nusantara International
Services, Rusmindo Internusa, Indonesian Airlines Avi Patria and
Satrio Mataram Airlines.

It is not yet clear, however, whether the new airlines will
serve only domestic routes.

Top officials of the airlines could not be reached for
comment.

"We are ready to operate scheduled commercial flights by May,"
Lyndon Tobing, an operational staff member at Bali Air told The
Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He said the airline was considering five routes, but he
declined to name them.

Separately, an official at Indonesian Airlines, Avi Patria,
said the airline would fly the Jakarta-Surabaya route starting
next month.

The entry of the new airlines, which will compete with 15
existing airlines, should benefit customers as prices are likely
to go down.

But it will be a turbulent sky for the industry.

Although the government earlier issued a decree allowing
airlines to raise prices by up to 20 percent, many airlines said
they would rather cut their ticket prices to attract customers
amid the tight competition.

There has already been one victim of the tough competition.
Awair International, a relatively new player in the domestic
airline industry, announced on Wednesday that it would
temporarily suspend commercial flights starting March 8.

The airline, which has been serving the Jakarta-Denpasar,
Jakarta-Surabaya and Jakarta-Medan routes, says it will resume
operations in June, possibly with new routes.

Some are quite optimistic that the domestic airline market has
started to recover. They cited the surprisingly 24.19 percent
surge in the number of airline passengers on domestic flights to
7.67 million between January and September last year.

They also said that the new autonomy policy boded well for the
airline industry as businesses and economic activities would
develop in provinces and regencies outside of Jakarta.