Increasing Airline Seat Capacity Key to Attracting More Foreigners: Tourism Minister
Jakarta. Tourism Minister Arief Yahya urged airlines operating in Indonesia to increase seat capacity in an attempt to reach this year's target of attracting 15 million foreign visitors to the country, according to an official statement.
"Currently, we are two million airline seats short," Arief said on a visit to Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport on Monday (08/05).
The minister highlighted the importance of increasing seat capacities, as 80 percent of foreign tourists land on Indonesian soil via air travel, while the remaining 20 percent travel to the archipelago by ship or on foot.
Arief recently met with officials of several major airlines – including Garuda Indonesia, Air Asia, Sriwijaya Air, Lion Air, Thai Lion Air Bangkok and Jetstar Australia – to discuss the possibility of increasing seat capacity and the addition of new flight routes.
Arief urged state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura and the Transportation Ministry to cooperate with airlines to boost foreign tourist arrivals.
"There will be more seats if airlines serve new routes. On the other hand, airlines can only open new routes if there are available time slots in our airports. That is why air navigation operators must make sure of slot availability," he added.
The minister also demanded that the Transportation Ministry streamline airlines' applications for adding routes or increasing flight frequency, as well as improving air connectivity with better traffic management systems at crowded airports, such as Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta and Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali.
However, even if government restrictions are lifted and conditions improved, there is still no guarantee that additional routes or seat capacity could be increased as airlines reserve the right to adjust policies as they see fit.
"The problem is, airlines tend to have complicated calculations before deciding to open certain routes," Arief added.
The government plans to offer "joint promotions" to lure airlines into adding more routes.
"We will set up what we call the 'Transport-Tourism Stimulus Package' to airlines and travel agents to incentivize establishing more air routes," Arief said.
The Tourism Ministry said its joint stimulus package will include cash incentives to both airlines and travel agents to increase foreign tourism to the country.
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