Posted 08 December 2006 @ 02:21
JAKARTA, 08 December 2006 - Indonesia will sign an air travel agreement with three neighboring countries allowing nominated airlines to fly unrestricted to four destinations in each country, a senior official said Thursday. The limited "open skies" agreement to be signed by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei is aimed at increasing tourist flow between the Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia's Minister of Transportation Hatta Radjasa said.
He said the pact would be signed Sunday at the leaders' summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, in the Philippine province of Cebu. "We will allow nominated airlines to fly to four destinations in each of the three larger countries, and to the city-state of Brunei," Radjasa said.
He said Indonesia has designated the far-flung cities of Manado, capital of North Sulawesi, along with Balikpapan, Pontianak and Tarakan on Kalimantan island. Currently, only foreign airlines with prior permission from the Transport Ministry are allowed to fly to these destinations. It was not clear what cities had been designated by the other three countries.
Jakarta also has assigned national flag-carrier Garuda and state-owned Merpati to carry out the flights, although other airlines would be nominated later, he said.
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