Ex_SQer From United States of America, joined Apr 2002, 1435 posts, RR: 6 Reply 1, posted (11 years 3 days ago) and read 979 times:
An entrepreneur is starting an airline with one turboprop with services initially to Darwin and to points within East Timor. He has stated he intends to acquire a B737 and begin services to Jakarta and Singapore in the longer run. I can't remember my exact source but I think it was Singapore's Straits Times online edition.
Aerokiwi From New Zealand, joined Jul 2000, 2410 posts, RR: 4 Reply 2, posted (11 years 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 971 times:
Yes, Dili has an airport, with quite reasonable facilities. I flew there about 18 months ago. Spectacular flight across the island, with the Air North E120 often lower than the mountain peaks.
With the oil fields in the region soon to be exploited, I believe the potential for success of a Timor based carrier is very high. And Air North is hardly much of a competitor. Forced to return to Darwin for an emergency landing on the way to Timor, then an aborted takeoff run at Dili after the co-pilot shrugged her arms for all to see. Real confidence inspiring stuff.
EC135 From Germany, joined Dec 2000, 23 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (11 years 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 937 times:
Does anybody know if there is an individual country code allocated to East Timor or will East Timorese aircraft continue to carry the Indonesian "PK"-reg.?
CV990 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 9, posted (11 years 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 903 times:
Hi!
East Timor will have in the future a national airline I'm sure about that. In the past and over the time Portugal was the colonial country there where some comercial activity. Transportes Aereos de Timor ( Air Transports of Timor ) ordered and used a factory fresh DeHavilland DH-114-2D Heron for flights to Australia I presume. The registration was CR-TAI c/n 14132 and it was delivered in 15/05/1959, that plane although crashed in the sea of Timor in 16/01/1960 a mere 8 months after delivery. Latter I think Portuguese Air Force used their planes over there to make some humanitarian flights. The major airport in East Timor is Baucau, a great airport that can receive at least L1011 Tristars. I think in the future East Timor should use those commuter jets or props to make some regular flights to Darwin perhaps and also to Djakarta, because those 2 countries will be the most popular for east timorese people to fly. I don't see any chances of TAP to fly to East Timor.
Regards
Dili/Comoro airport is the main international gateway into East Timor and presently is the only airport authorised for civil aircraft operations including international commercial charter operations. Authorisation to operate civil aircraft into other airports will be made on a case-by-case basis.
Dili/Comoro airport is located about 8km from Dili city centre. It presently handles an average of 40 movements daily. About 10 of these are commercial flights using a mix of B737, F28, BAE126 and E120 turboprop. Merpati Nusantara (Indonesia) and Airnorth (Australia) operate daily into Dili/Comoro.
Baucau/Cakung, the second airport, is situated about 95km east of Dili. It is however generally restricted to aircraft operations in support of UN Peace Keeping Forces (PKF). The third airport is Suai about 85km south of Dili. Airstrips are located at Oecussi about 150km west of Dili and at Maliana about 50km southwest of Dili. A number of landing strips also exist but are suitable only for small aircraft and helicopters. The Dili Heliport is situated approximately 2km from Dili/Comoro airport. It essentially handles UNTAET helicopter operations.
As to an East Timorese airline. In theory, it would be great to see. In reality however, it is next to impossible in the immediate future. The Gusmao Government has more important things to deal with at the moment, than worrying about an East Timorese airline.
I have heard various rumours however about an East Timorese airline ranging from an Indonesian-Russian-East Timorese joint venture operating Il-114s to Regionair of Singapore basing a few aircraft there.
If I were Eng. Ovidio de Jesus Amaral (the East Timorese Minister of Transport and Communications), I would be putting some thought into an airline, but maybe contracting the operations out to an operator such as National Jet.
In the future, as Australia (in particular) pumps aid into East Timor, and the basic ammenities are available to the average East Timorese person, I would be expecting resorts to go up on the beaches. I have heard that East Timore has some of the nicest beaches in that region, and in time, it would be fair to say that they will be able to take some of the Aussie tourist dollar which currently goes to Bali.
Rushed From Australia, joined May 2000, 244 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (11 years 20 hours ago) and read 699 times:
Ok people,
before everyone gets started on ideas for an airline in east timor, how about more important things like health and education....oh yeah and security, after all INTERFET troops are still in east timor to ensure security, and from what ive heard its not all that pleasant over there still. So once all that is sorted and they have heath, education and essential services (power, water, gas, sewerage etc) fixed up, then we can think about airlines.
Aerokiwi From New Zealand, joined Jul 2000, 2410 posts, RR: 4 Reply 17, posted (11 years 17 hours ago) and read 680 times:
HKGSpotter: That big rectangle is the parking apron. And those orange rooves are the terminal buildings. It's like a 30 second walk onto the apron.
Rushed: Entirely true. There are more pressing matters. But social and economic develppment is never in isolation. Usually a whole hodge-podge of factors combine to push things along. For example, more tourism = increased economic activity = greater standards of living = better health & education.
I'm not saying that better aviation is entirely responsible for better social services, but it does help. Everything these days is interrelated.
CV990 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 18, posted (11 years 14 hours ago) and read 656 times:
Hi!
It's good to ear some aviation enthusiasts talking about the real needs for East Timor. I always leave a tear from my eyes everytime I see reports about the tragedy that happened to the most young country in the world. Beeing portuguese and knowing quite well the east timoreese I know that this country really had the guts to be still in the right moment and finnaly acheave the prize, their independence. They dserve the best for them and I pround that I gave a very, very small contribuition for them!
regards
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