Turkish Airlines serves Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): Turkish Airlines's maiden flight to Jakarta, an Airbus A340 carrying 105 passengers from Istanbul via Bangkok and Singapore, landed yesterday at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

Turkish Airlines now serves Istanbul-Jakarta, via Bangkok and Singapore, and Jakarta-Istanbul twice a week, said Lany Sukardi, director of PT Angkasa Cahaya Cemerlang, the airline's general sales agent, here yesterday.

"There were 42 passengers on board, two of them Indonesians, originating from Istanbul on the inaugural flight to Jakarta. Another 12 passengers were on the return flight to Istanbul," she said.

She said that flights would arrive in Jakarta on Mondays and Fridays at 4:30 p.m. and leave for Istanbul at 6:40 p.m. on the same day.

Istanbul-Jakarta traveling time is just over 15 hours, with nine hours and 30 minutes for the Istanbul-Bangkok leg, three hours for the Bangkok-Singapore leg and one hour and 30 minutes for the Singapore-Jakarta leg, and some two hours transit time in Bangkok and Singapore, she said.

"To cut the traveling time, within the next two months, the stopovers will be cut to just Singapore," she said, adding that her company expected businesspeople, tourists and pilgrims from Indonesia to use the airline.

Turkish Airlines is a state-owned air carrier which was set up in 1933. With a fleet of 65 aircraft, the company offers services to 29 cities in Turkey and 63 international destinations.

Overseas air carriers are encouraged to fly to Indonesia as the country relies increasingly on international tourists for foreign exchange earnings.

Indonesia has designated 23 airports as international gateways into the archipelago.

The government has set a target of 9.26 million in annual seating capacity of international air flights serving the country in 1997 to support a target of some 5.5 million foreign tourist arrivals this year.

Indonesia is presently served by six domestic air carriers and 42 foreign airlines of more than 13 nations with 16.2 million in annual seating capacity.

Out of the capacity, some 1.85 million seats are for European services and some 6.45 million for Asia-Pacific, Australia and Indonesia's major tourist markets.

A number of foreign airlines such as Northwest and United Airlines of the United States, Lauda Air of Austria have expressed interests to open routes into the country. But they have yet to start services. (icn)