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Timor Leste, RI sign air service deal
Timor Leste and Indonesia on Monday agreed to allow two Indonesian airlines to serve routes into Timor Leste, with 14 flights a week
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imor Leste and Indonesia on Monday agreed to allow two Indonesian airlines to serve routes into Timor Leste, with 14 flights a week.
The airlines are state-owned PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines and the privately owned Batavia Air.
“As of [Monday], Batavia and Merpati are allowed to fly to Timor Leste 14 times a week,” Indonesian Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi said after signing an air service agreement with Timor Leste’s Infrastructure Minister Pedro Lay da Silva.
The airlines would serve the Jakarta-Denpasar-Dili route, Freddy said.
“We also plan to open a Surabaya-Kupang-Dili route soon,” he said.
Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said the government would soon allow other airlines to fly into Timor Leste.
“However, we have to renegotiate the plan with the Timor Leste government,” he said. Meanwhile, da Silva said the agreement would benefit both countries because it would boost the Timor Leste economy.
“Timor Leste is a new country. We expect the agreement to develop the tourism sector there,” da Silva said.
Da Silva added that Timor Leste planned to establish its own airlines, but said this plan would take some time to realize. Until now Merpati has been the only airline flying to the former Indonesian province since it seceded in 1999. Merpati, operating non-commercial regular flights with 18 sales branches in Timor Leste, serves the Denpasar-Dili route seven times a week using a 138-seater Boeing 737-300.
Merpati executive vice president commercial Tonny Aulia Achmad said the route had a load factor of 85 percent, with 60 percent of passengers being businesspeople.
He added that airfares were set at US$348.
Merpati plans to add one new flight to Dili from Denpasar and open three new routes including Kupang-Dili, Makassar-Dili, and Kupang-Dili-Darwin.
Meanwhile, Batavia commercial director Hasudungan Pandiangan said the private airline would fly the Jakarta-Denpasar-Dili route in December using an Airbus A319 with a capacity of 144 seats.
“We will offer cheaper airfares than Merpati,” he said.
