SIA to increase its flights to Indonesia

JAKARTA (JP): Singapore Airlines (SIA) and its subsidiary SilkAir will expand their services to Indonesia in October.

SIA's general manager in Indonesia, Paul Tan, said yesterday that the frequency of the Singapore-Surabaya service would be increased from seven to 10 flights per week and the Singapore- Denpasar service would be increased from 14 to 21 flights per week, beginning on either Oct. 28 or Oct. 29.

He also said that SilkAir would commence direct flights linking Singapore and Ujungpandang in South Sulawesi three times per week within the next three months, using Fokker-70 planes.

SIA's assistant director of corporate affairs, Karm Jit Singh, told The Jakarta Post after attending a ceremony for the signing of a joint hotel project between SIA, the Keppel Group of Singapore and Indonesia's Salim Group yesterday that the service expansion was one of the measures being pursued by Singapore and Indonesia by way of follow-up to the recent agreement between the two countries on boosting cooperation in air transport, tourism and other sectors.

In addition to the services to Surabaya and Denpasar, SIA currently also serves Jakarta seven times per day, while SilkAir currently serves Jakarta (three times per day), Surakarta in Central Java (three times per week), Medan in North Sumatra (six times per week), Padang in West Sumatra (three times per week), Pekanbaru in Riau (three times per week), Mataram in West Nusa Tenggara (four times per week) and Manado in North Sulawesi (two times per week).

On Sept. 29 last year Indonesia and Singapore signed a tourism cooperation accord, under which SilkAir was required to begin services to four Indonesian cities -- Padang, Mataram, Pekanbaru and Surakarta -- within six months' of the date of the agreement.

In serving Mataram, Surakarta and Ujungpandang, SilkAir is working with three Indonesian airlines: respectively, Sempati Air, Merpati Nusantara and Bouraq Airlines.

According to Tan, SIA has so far won a 38 percent market share of Singapore-Indonesia air transport services. "Indonesia is one of SIA's 10 major markets, which include Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand," he added.

Indonesia and Singapore agreed last month to form a joint marketing board which will study tourism issues. The two countries plan to cooperate for their mutual benefit -- Indonesia benefiting from its tourist industry and Singapore from its capital resources. (icn)