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irline competition will soon heat up when PT Aviastar Mandiri starts to serve the lucrative routes that connect Kalimantan, Riau and Papua.

Aviatar president director Bayu Sutanto said Wednesday the company had been awarded a scheduled flight business permit (SIUP) from the Transportation Ministry, putting Aviatar on target to more than quadruple its passenger volume next year.

“Last year we transported 91,000 passengers. We are targeting to transport 200,000 passengers this year,” Bayu told The Jakarta Post at his office in Jakarta, adding that Aviastar expected to attract 500,000 passengers in 2011 with more aircraft and new routes.

“The SIUP allows us to fly to 120 domestic destinations and 12 international destinations,” Bayu said.

“However, we are still considering whether or not we can fly to 20 new destinations next year,”
Bayu added.

Aviastar currently serves Kalimantan with 13 routes, Papua with 18 routes and Riau Island with seven.

Bayu said he was optimistic that the airline business in Indonesia would improve in the future.

“Eastern Indonesian routes, for instance, are quite promising for the business. In the future, we will be the feeder airline and will cooperate with big airline companies,” he said.

The government also re-issued a SIUP for Tri-MG, a cargo airline which had its business permit revoked by the government in 2008.

The Transportation Ministry is currently processing SIUPs for five airlines: Jatayu Airlines, Life Air, Love Air Service, PT Firefly Indonesia Berjaya and Martabuana Abadi.

Seven other airlines — Fly Cargo, Megantara Air, North Aceh Air, Sultra Air, Phoenix, Bee Air Charter, and Spirit Global Service — were not issued SIUPs.

Indonesia has 16 scheduled airline companies and 28 non-scheduled airline companies, which mostly transport cargo.

Analysts said that the government was forced to stop issuing SIUPs due to the country’s limited airport infrastructure.