Foreign flights increase could benefit tourism

To garner more visitors for Indonesia's tourist program dubbed Visit Indonesia Year 2008, the government should grant more foreign airlines increased flight frequencies into Bali and other tourist destinations, an industry leader said Wednesday.

"If the government wants to be totally committed to making (the program) a success, it should start wooing other foreign airlines besides Singapore Airlines," Tengku Burhanuddin, Secretary General of the Indonesian National Air Carriers Association (INACA), said.

"Tell them that since our national carrier is banned by the European Union, we'll give them (foreign airlines) additional flight frequencies into Indonesia."

The Ministry of Transportation recently granted Singapore Airlines an increase in flight frequencies from four to seven flights per day to support the government's tourism program.

Tengku said the government should also grant European airliners direct routes to Bali and other tourist destinations, including Makassar in South Sulawesi and Surabaya in East Java.