Jakarta Globe, ID/Novy Lumanauw & Ezra Sihite, May 05, 2014
Indonesia’s first presidential plane. (JG Photo/Ezra Sihite) |
Jakarta.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday afternoon made use for the first
time of the nation’s new $91 million presidential plane for a short flight to a
conference in Bali.
Yudhoyono
and his entourage took off from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta at 1
p.m., presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said.
The
president will remain in Bali until May 7 to attend the Asia Pacific Open
Government Partnership Conference and visit the Mancawarna Palace Museum.
The
customized 737-800 will take its first long journey on May 10, carrying the
President to the ASEAN Summit in Myanmar.
Yudhoyono
said that the plane was intended for use by his successor by that he was
grateful to make use of it during his final months in office.
His term
ends in October.
“[The
plane] is for the next president after me,” he said at the State Palace on
Monday. “Ten years as a president, Alhamdulillah, and within the last six month
I can use the plane that can save our budget.”
The jet,
dubbed Indonesia One, arrived on April 10 from a Boeing facility in Seattle,
Washington. For the past month, it has undergone a series of tests and made a
series of flights crisscrossing the country, from Banda Aceh to Manado to
Merauk, Papua.
State
Secretary Sudi Silalahi said that the plane, which can carry 67 passengers,
would save money, although critics have called it an unnecessary expenditure.
“From our
calculations, we can save the state budget around Rp 114.2 billion [$10.05
million] every year from the use of the plane for the years ahead,” he said in
April.
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