Air France – KLM to launch new ‘competitive’ airline, nicknamed Boost

DutchNews, November 3, 2016

Air France.com via Wikimedia Commons

Air France – KLM is going to set up a new airline to compete with Gulf state airlines as part of a nine-point plan to win back market share and turn loss-making routes into profit centres. 

The new initiative, dubbed Boost, is the Air France – KLM ‘response to Gulf State airlines which are developing at low production costs in key markets,’ the airlines said in a statement. 

Based at Charles de Gaulle airport, the new company will be ‘simple, modern and innovative’ and will not be positioned as low cost, the statement said. ‘It will offer its customers business and leisure destinations with standards comparable to those of Air France in terms of product quality and the professionalism of the crews.’ 

The planes will be staffed by Air France pilots on a voluntary basis and talks with the unions on staffing arrangements will begin soon. 

The new strategy, named Trust Together, also aims to boost competitiveness, improve links between the various airport hubs and set up lobbying activities on competition issues. 

Air France – KLM also said on Thursday it had booked net profit of €544m in the third quarter of the year, up from €481 in the same period last year. Revenue was almost €7bn, down €400m on a year ago.

Dubai now home to world's busiest international airport

Dubai International handled a record number of passengers last year, putting it ahead of London's Heathrow for the first time as the planet's busiest international airport. Heathrow looks unlikely to win back the crown.

Deutsche Welle, 27 Jan 2015

FlyDubai plane landing at Dubai International

Dubai's airport operators said Tuesday that 70.5 million passengers streamed through the city's international airport in 2014, marking a 6-percent increase on last year.

The rapid growth put Dubai International squarely ahead of London Heathrow for the first time as the world's busiest international transport hub.

Dubai International pulled off the big gains despite having to redirect many flights to the Gulf city's second airport, Al Maktoum while it overhauled the hub's two side-by-side runways over the summer.

Rise of domestic carriers

Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths predicted Dubai International would top its own record and handle 79 million passengers this year, saying it offered "more flights connecting more people to more destinations."

Dubai airport has been expanding fast thanks in part to the growth of hometown airline Emirates, and smaller budget carrier FlyDubai.

Both airlines and the city's airports are owned by the emirate's government, which has championed aviation as a central driver of the local economy.

While Dubai is now home to the busiest international aviation hub, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, in the US, remains the world's busiest passenger airport overall.

hg/bk (Reuters, AFP, AP)

Honeymoon tourism in Puncak

Theresia Sufa , The Jakarta Post, Bogor | Fri, 03/12/2010 11:20 AM

Love mountain: Many large villas dot the hills of North and South Tugu villages, in the mountainous Puncak area, Bogor, West Java. While the area is known as a weekend getaway for wealthy Indonesians, it is also a popular spot where Arab tourists marry Indonesian women unofficially for a short period of time.

Mention the villages of North Tugu and South Tugu in the Cisarua district, Bogor regency, and most people will promptly associate them with the Puncak tourist zone, Arab visitors, and contract-based or unregistered marriages locally called nikah siri.

The two neighboring villages, only separated by the Puncak highway, have become a money circulation center where tourists, mostly Arab visitors, exchange their dollars in 17 moneychangers to the average sum of US$1,000 per person a day. In North Tugu, during the Arab tourist visit season, the money exchanged in seven changers may reach Rp 7 billion ($700,000) a day.

May, June and July is the peak season for Arabs tourism. Not surprisingly, all local shops, salons, money changers, travel agencies, villas, rental cars and car wash stations use Arabic characters for their names and notices.

Then vice president Jusuf Kalla once jokingly said the Arab tourist arrivals for unregistered marriages would result in good-looking offsprings and future TV drama stars. At that time, Kalla suggested promoting Puncak for tourists from Middle East countries. He later retracted his statement, saying it had been misunderstood.

Arabs are renowned for coming to Puncak — which they refer to as Jabal (mountain) — for holidays and “dates” with Indonesian women.

In fact, transactions with prostitutes and contract marriage arrangements start as soon as the Arab visitors set foot in Jakarta International Airport.

Now the dangdut or jablai, the local term for working girls, not only include women from Cianjur, Cimahi and Garut, West Java, but also from Jakarta and Cengkareng, Tangerang.

While in previous years Puncak foreign visitors always used airport taxis, today rental car drivers from Tugu villages are picking up Arab tourists at the airport and helping them pick out girls they like. These rental cars are known as “Arab taxis.”

Ready to go: Several drivers sit in a car rental shop in North Tugu village. They are on standby, ready to take Arab tourists around or pick them up from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

“A driver introduced me to an Arab tourist at Soekarno-Hatta, who was attracted to me. He asked if I was ready to accompany the Arab to Puncak, I accepted the offer as I needed some money, just as long as he wouldn’t be rough with me,” Alia said.

The 30-year-old, who met The Jakarta Post at a small salon in a villa in Sampay, North Tugu village, said she worked in karaoke parlors in the area of Cengkareng, employed to keep guests “company”.

“I’ve a child with my Indonesian boyfriend but now he’s left me. So I’m serving karaoke guests in Cengkareng, who sometimes take me to Jakarta. I have to work as a prostitute to raise my child, but I make fairly large sums of money,” continued Alia, as she had her hair styled before a mirror.

Alia claimed she had been married to an Arab tourist but only for a short time.

“I do not want to be in another one of those contract marriages as I’ve gained no benefit and I don’t want to be bound by vague ties. I will accompany the Arab man I meet at the airport for the two months he’s here, and get paid Rp 400,000 a day for it.”

— Photos by JP/Theresia Sufa

Etihad opens new RI office

The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA: Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), officially opened its new office in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Located on Jalan Sudirman, South Jakarta, the new office will handle sales and all of the airline's other business in Indonesia, manager Geoff Rhodes told reporters following the official opening ceremony.

Since it first commenced operations here last year, Etihad has been flying from Jakarta to Abu Dhabi, UAE, six times a week, and has been carrying about 2,268 passengers per week, representing a 70 percent load factor. The airline plans to increase the number of its flights to Jakarta to eight per week starting Aug. 1, and to 12 per week by the end of the year.

"We actually have the right to fly eight times a week, but at the moment the market is still sluggish. We will increase the number of flights as the market improves," Rhodes said.

Last week, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad established a new route to Sydney, Australia. In July, it will start flying to two more new destinations -- Dublin in Ireland and Milan in Italy.

Qatar Airways expected to bring more foreign tourists to Bali

Rita A.Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Jimbaran, Bali

With the launch of direct flight from Doha to Bali's provincial capital, Denpasar, last week, Qatar Airways is expected to help bring more tourists from the Middle East and Europe to the resort island.

Speaking Thursday to reporters at a media gathering at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Jimbaran Bay, Qatar Airways's chief executive officer Akbar Al Baker, said he hoped the airline would not only bring visitors from the Middle East to Bali, but also from Europe and North America.

"Bali has always been one of the world's top destinations despite terrorist attacks years ago. People will again go back to Bali and forget those terrible events," Al Baker said.

Qatar Airways, which launched its new route to Denpasar on Saturday, flies to Bali's capital four times a week via Kuala Lumpur using Airbus A300-600 aircraft.

In 2001, Qatar Airways introduced Indonesia's capital Jakarta to its growing list of global destinations.

"With stronger economic ties developing between Indonesia and other countries, we can expect a surge in the number of visitors both to and from Bali," Al Baker explained.

According to figures from the Bali Tourism Authority, the number of visitors from the Middle East is still very small, amounting to only 800 a month. Bali receives about 1.2 million visitors a year.

"We can't tell you how many passengers from the Middle East will come to Bali, but I can assure you that people in my country consider Bali to be an attractive holiday destination," he said, adding that at present Qataris and other people from the Middle East mostly spent their holidays in Europe.

Gede Nurjaya, the head of the Bali Tourism Authority, warmly welcomed the start of direct flights between Doha and Denpasar.

"We have to be prepared to receive Middle Eastern visitors, and also more Europeans," he said, adding that since Garuda Indonesian discontinued its European routes, including London, Amsterdam and Paris, several years ago, the number of European visitors had dropped significantly.

Europe is one of Bali's most important markets, in addition to Australia, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik praised Qatar's decision to fly to Denpasar, hoping that with the airline's arrival, more tourists from the Middle East and Europe would visit Bali and other parts of Indonesia.

Besides Denpasar, the airline also launched inaugural flights last week from Doha to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and from Doha to Chennai, India.

The addition of Denpasar and Ho Chi Minh City sees Qatar Airways' Far East network increase from 12 to 14 destinations. The airline also serves Hong Kong, Osaka, Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Yangon, Manila and Cebu.

Kalla defends the purchase of 12 choppers

The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA (Antara): Vice President Jusuf Kalla Tuesday defended the government's purchase of 12 helicopters, which will be used to carry out immediate helps for victims of natural disasters.

He also denied that the procurement of the choppers did not pass through right procedures.

"There is nothing wrong with the procedure. All those stories are nonsense," he was quoted by Antara news agency as saying before leaving for his Middle East trip.

Many criticized the procurement of the choppers, which were being held by Custom Office because supplier has not paid entry taxes. There was also a report that the procurement involved Kalla's relative.

According to Kalla, the chopper purchase is for the pride of the nation and for the sake of people's interests because so far, Indonesia always borrowed choppers from neighboring countries to give immediate help to victims of natural disasters.

He also denied that the choppers will be used for commercial transports.

Qatar Airways opens Diha-Denpasar flight route

Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA News) - Qatar Airways will open a new flight route of Doha - Denpasar with a transit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the initial flight is expected to be officiated on Wednesday.

"The airlines` Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Akbar Al Baker who is also Qatar`s Minister for Tourism will attend for the function," Freddy SPS of the Bali Tourism Board said on Monday.

The airlines` manager area of Indonesia Joe Rajadurai, meanwhile after a meeting with Bali Governor Dewa Beratha said the airlines has committed to support the tourist sector in Bali and would cooperate with the provincial tourism office to promote tourist destination here.

Freddy said it would bring more tourists from the European and Middle East countries as well as Malaysia.

Bali Governor Dewa Beratha, meanwhile said the provincial administration supported the opening of the new route.

The airlines will be the first airline company from the Middle East operating in Bali.

Beratha also expressed a hope that the airlines would serve the direct flight connecting Doha and Bali in the near future.