U.S. airlines delay RI service again
JAKARTA (JP): Two U.S. air carriers, United Airlines and Northwest Airlines, have again delayed services to Indonesia due to the unsettled aviation dispute between Japan and the United States.
Ibnu Tryono, a senior manager and head of marketing of PT Baptista Cargo & Trans. Co, the general sales agent of Northwest, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that Northwest expects to start its service to Jakarta on Dec. 1 after a second delay.
Northwest originally planned to start serving a Seattle-Osaka- Jakarta route on July 1 but had to delay the planned inaugural service until Oct. 1 because Japan refused to permit it intra- Asia traffic rights.
Because Japan and the United States thus far have not solved their air dispute, Northwest has had to delay again its plan to enter Indonesia.
The unsettled dispute has also prevented United Airlines from currently linking San Francisco and Jakarta via Osaka, Japan. The air carrier originally planned to begin the service later this month.
Pele Sudijaya, a manager of PT Samudra Indonesia Dirgantara Services, the sole agent of United Airlines, told the Post yesterday that United Airlines has not received clearance from Japan for its planned stopover in Osaka.
"We are still waiting for further notification," he said.
United Airlines plans to serve the San Francisco-Osaka-Jakarta route three times per week by operating Boeing B-747-200 aircraft, while Northwest plans to link Seattle in the United Sates and Jakarta via Osaka also three times per week with a DC- 10 jet.
United Airlines currently serves a San Francisco-Osaka route seven times per week while Northwest serves Seattle-Osaka four times per week.
Tryono and Sudijaya said that the Indonesian government had approved both Northwest and United Airlines to link the United States and Indonesia via Osaka.
Due to the delay in July, Northwest Airlines diverted some 6,000 passengers planning to leave Jakarta for the United States through Osaka to state-owned Garuda Indonesia and a Japanese airline. (icn)