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span>Indonesian airlines have seen dozens of routes and schedules revoked by the authorities during the first five months of the year on the back of low demand.

However, the airline industry is optimistic that the market will recover by the end of the year.

According to data from the Transportation Ministry, permits for six routes operated by five airlines were revoked by the ministry between January and May 23.

Among the revoked routes are those connecting Jakarta to Pekanbaru, Riau, operated by privately owned carrier Sriwijaya Air and the Jakarta-Pontianak, West Kalimantan, route operated by NAM Air.

Meanwhile, the ministry has also revoked a total of 77 weekly flights operated by five airlines, including seven flights connecting Surabaya, East Java, and Denpasar, Bali, operated by national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and another seven linking Jakarta and Pangkal Pinang, Bangka Belitung Islands, operated by Garuda’s low-cost arm Citilink.

The ministry stated that the revocations had been made as the respective airlines had failed to serve the routes or operate the flights that had been approved by the authorities for seven consecutive days as stipulated in ministerial regulation no. 40/2016.

Sriwijaya Air senior manager for corporate communications Agus Soedjono confirmed that the airline did not fly the Jakarta-Pekanbaru route because of low demand for flights. The same applied to the airline’s flights connecting Makassar, South Sulawesi, to Gorontalo, Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, and Sorong, West Papua, he said.

The ministry has scrapped seven of Sriwijaya’s weekly flights from Makassar, to Gorontalo and Kendari, while it also revoked another seven flights to Sorong, leaving only seven flights going to the West Papuan city. “This is just temporary,” Agus said, adding that the airline might ask for the frequency and the route again some time in the future.

The regulation stipulates that an airline can apply for the new route and frequency a year after the revocation.

Agus, however, maintained that the airline still hoped to see a 5-10 percent increase in the number of passengers this year compared to that of last year. The airline’s average load factor, he said, stood at between 80 percent and 85 percent during the first four months of the year.

Meanwhile, Citilink commercial director Hans Nugroho said the airline was currently adjusting its flight capacity by relocating some of its aircraft to other routes in response to low passenger demand on the Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara,-Surabaya and Jakarta-Pangkal Pinang routes.

All of the company’s seven weekly flights on the Jakarta-Pangkal Pinang route have been revoked, while its Lombok-Surabaya route has been reduced to seven weekly flights, down from 14.

“January to April is indeed the worst [season]. We have just relocated aircraft and rescheduled [flights],” Hans said. However, he added that the number of passengers had increased by 10 percent during January to April compared to last year.

The load factor in January to April stood at just around 79 percent, he said. The company, however, is expecting the figure to jump to above 90 percent with the Idul Fitri holiday season in early July.

The company plans to propose 136 extra flights during the holiday season, with most of the flights serving popular destinations like Yogyakarta, Medan, North Sumatra, and Denpasar.

Citilink itself expected the number of passengers to increase by 30 percent this year “In May so far, we’ve seen a 32 percent increase compared to last year. So we’re still on track,” president director Albert Burhan said.

Last week, Lion Air, the country’s largest low-cost carrier, asked the ministry to suspend 217 scheduled weekly flights to avoid revocation, citing sluggish demand during the low season.