Tangerang, Banten (ANTARA News) - Director General of Air Transportation at the Transportation Ministry Agus Santoso said that 532 planes will be operational for the domestic and international trips during the 2017 Eid al-Fitr period.

As many as 35 airports will be involved in serving the 532 planes, Santoso said in Soekarno-Hatta international airport here on Sunday.

Santoso further said that his side has set 275,256 low additional seats (five percent) of regular capacity of 5.5 million seats since the seven days before and after (H-7 and H + 7) the Eid al-Fitr period.

Meanwhile, for the overseas flights regular capacity, there will be 886,075 seats with an additional 44,304 seats flight forecasts (five percent), so the total capacity reaches 930,379 seats since the H-7 and H + 7 of the Eid al-Fitr period, he revealed.

The airlines that have applied for the additional flights including the Garuda Indonesia, Sriwijaya Air, Indonesia AirAsia Extra, Malaysia Airline, Singapore Airlines, Silk Air, Jetstar Asia Airways and Cathay Pacific.

In addition, the airlines are required to meet the airworthiness of aircraft and check the fleet readiness periodically to be operated in 2017 the Eid al-Fitr (Lebaran) period.

The Transportation Ministry predicted that the number of Eid al-Fitr holidaymakers traveling by plane this year will increase by 9.8 percent to 5.5 million, from 4.9 million last year.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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