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To garner more visitors for Indonesia's tourist program
dubbed Visit Indonesia Year 2008, the government should grant more
foreign airlines increased flight frequencies into Bali and other
tourist destinations, an industry leader said Wednesday.
"If the government wants to be totally committed to making (the
program) a success, it should start wooing other foreign airlines
besides Singapore Airlines," Tengku Burhanuddin, Secretary General of
the Indonesian National Air Carriers Association (INACA), said.
"Tell them that since our national carrier is banned by the European
Union, we'll give them (foreign airlines) additional flight frequencies
into Indonesia."
The Ministry of Transportation recently granted Singapore Airlines an
increase in flight frequencies from four to seven flights per day to
support the government's tourism program.
Singapore Airlines provides flights from Singapore to Bali, Jakarta and
Medan, and the flights increase could see traveler capacity rise to
15,000 per week.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla, along with Transportation Minister Jusman
Syafii Djamal and Tourism and Culture Minister Jero Wacik, reached the
decision upon learning that European tourists were having difficulties
finding direct flights from Singapore to Bali due to a recently
prolonged EU ban on Indonesia's national carriers.
Tengku said the government should also grant European airliners direct
routes to Bali and other tourist destinations, including Makassar in
South Sulawesi and Surabaya in East Java.
"There's no reason why the government can't grant more flight
frequencies to other foreign airliners. Let them build our tourism
market for us and then, when we're ready, we'll slowly tap into that
market," he said.
Currently, only Singapore Airlines and Garuda Indonesia are authorized
to fly the Singapore-Bali route, with Garuda operating one direct
flight per day. Budget Indonesian carrier Lion Air has plans to tap
into the route soon, and the ministry of tourism and culture has stated
several foreign airliners have requested permission to operate it too.
A recent Ministry survey on European passengers found that 30 percent
of those wishing to visit Bali were forced to switch destinations due
to flight unavailability.
The government has also recently opened the Yogyakarta-Kuala Lumpur
route to two airliners: Malaysia Airlines, which would use the
144-passenger carrying Boeing 737, and AirAsia, which would use the
Airbus A 320, with 180 passenger capacity.
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