State transportation firms suffer losses
JAKARTA (JP): The government admitted yesterday major obstacles were preventing the improvement of three state-owned transportation companies, including two airlines, Garuda Indonesia and Merpati Nusantara, and the capital's bus operator PPD.
However Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto refused to say what the problems were or how they might be tackled.
He said four state-owned transportation companies under his office's supervision, Merpati, PPD, ocean-going shipping firm PT Djakarta Lloyd and dredging operator PT Rukindo, had failed to book profits in the third quarter of this year.
"The combined profits of the 18 state transportation companies were Rp 454.34 billion (US$113.6 million) in the third quarter, much lower than the original target of Rp 740.39 billion," Haryanto told members of the House of Representatives in a hearing yesterday.
"Garuda may double its revenue this year even though its profit will remain low," he said.
He said Garuda was projected to make Rp 308.29 billion in profit this year. "But it will probably earn only Rp 191.47 billion."
Haryanto refused to disclose how Garuda had succeeded to turn around its financial performance in the third quarter, when it booked a profit of Rp 12.74 billion. In the first half of the year its losses were Rp 122.8 billion.
He said that he had told Garuda to look for some Rp 1 trillion by selling part of its assets like hotels and shares in the catering service PT Aerowisata to pay parts its debts currently worth Rp 3 trillion.
The minister said that in the first nine months of the year, Merpati lost Rp 89.43 billion, PPD Rp 9.89 billion, Rukindo Rp 11.93 billion and Djakarta Lloyd Rp 6.4 billion.
Among the 14 companies which booked profits in the January- September period were PT Pelindo II, which manages the Tanjungpriok port in Jakarta. Its total profit was Rp 178.73 billion. PT Angkasa Pura I, which operates the capital's Soekarno-Hatta airport, was also Rp 106.58 billion in the black.
Garuda director Dharmadi said yesterday that the airline was originally targeted to have a total revenue of Rp 4.5 trillion and a total profit of about Rp 240 billion this year.
"So far, Garuda has gained 90 percent of the targeted revenue, but we'll fail to reach the targeted profit. Our earnings will probably be some 20 percent short of fthe target."
He cited the dire economic situation, the devaluation of the rupiah and the forest fires/haze as the major causes of the poor financial performance.
"We have to cut costs to make Garuda more sound. One of the measures is to streamline our aircraft types," he said.
Dharmadi said that by early 1999, Garuda would operate only four types of jet, Boeing B747-400 and B737, Airbus A330 and MD11, much less than the eight types currently operated.
Garuda at present operates 54 jets, including the above and B747-200s, A300-B4s, DC10s and Fokker F28s.
"We'll phase out the aging aircraft by selling them to interested parties," Dharmadi said.
He said that Garuda was improving its international services by launching direct flights linking Jakarta and Frankfurt.
"The service is, at the moment, the fastest flight to Europe from Jakarta. Since the introduction in late October, the load factor of 77 percent is promising. We may open more direct flights to Amsterdam or Paris in 1998," he said.
Garuda's alliances with KLM of the Netherlands and Northwest of the United States for seamless connections would also improve the airline's services, he said. (icn)