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Palembang evening flights reduced, Mimika starts up
Two airlines have temporarily reduced flights linking the South Sumatra capital of Palembang with Jakarta due to low demand
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Two airlines have temporarily reduced flights linking the South Sumatra capital of Palembang with Jakarta due to low demand. Meanwhile Mimika regency, Papua, is poised to start its own airline, Mimika Air, to meet demand for remote rural areas.
Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has dropped its 8:40 p.m. GA 122 flight linking Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport, Palembang, with Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, while private Sriwijaya Airlines canceled its 7:15 p.m. SJ 082 flight on the same route.
Supervisor of apron movement control at Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport, Dausi Gandawanto, said both airlines used Boeing 737s.
"It seems that the fall in passengers has prompted two airlines to reduce flight schedules," he said.
Head of the Palembang branch of state airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II, Resmi Wandi, said he had yet to hear about this.
"Flights reduction are the internal affair of each airline, usually caused by a decrease in passengers," he said.
"However, airlines usually add flights in the afternoons."
Garuda general manager for Palembang, Rismondari, confirmed the flight reductions due to low demand in the early part of the Ramadan fasting month.
"Now we have five flights daily. Passengers will increase in the next two weeks as Idul Fitri gets closer," he said.
Meanwhile, in Papua, the Mimika Tourism and Transportation Agency head, Markus Raturoma, said Tuesday that the administration's Pilatus PC-6 Porter airplane will arrive in Jakarta on Thursday.
Raturoma said that he and Mimika acting regent Athanasius Allo Rafra had just arrived from an official trip to Switzerland to pay for the airplane.
"The plane will be operational as soon as we finish its administration and insurance processes in Jakarta," he said.
"Mimika Air will serve residents and administration employees living and working in Mimika's mountainous and remote areas."
The airplane, bought for Rp 20 billion (US$2.17 million), will fly out of Mozes Kilangin Airport in Timika.
The single turboprop engine Pilatus PC-6 Porter is a versatile general utility aircraft with a short take-off and landing ability, making it suited to the mountainous terrain of Papua.
The regency administration has also bought a landing craft (LCT) passenger vessel from a shipyard in Bitung, North Sulawesi.
Christened as LCT Mimika, the Rp 4 billion vessel is already docked at Pomako Port and will serve residents in Mimika coastal areas.
"The procurement of these two means of transportation is aimed to provide better services for residents living in remote areas," said Raturoma.
