BALI - Flight Curtailments May Increase Bad Debt

Balidiscovery.com, (11/12/2006)

The Indonesian language Bisnis Bali reports that Garuda's plans to stop direct international flights to Bali may cause tourism transportation operators to default on their bank loans.

The Owner of Serasi Transport, Made Kondra, told Bisnis Bali that the cessation of direct overseas flights by Garuda "will cause businesspeople operating the tourism sector to fail in making repayments to the bank." He described how the policy of the National Carrier will affect the two largest inbound market sources of tourists for Bali and render current recovery efforts useless.

Kodra, who is also a member of the Regional Parliament, called on Garuda to review its decision to stop direct flights to Bali, especially in light of indications that tourism recovery efforts are beginning to bear fruit, with arrival numbers showing improvement over recent months.

>>Full article