Passenger ship in Indonesia

The transport of people and goods in Indonesia from one coastal town to another is mostly carried out by passenger ships and cargo ships. Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world with a population of around two hundred and twenty million people. Most of them live in coastal towns and villages that are scattered around more than seventeen thousand big and small islands. Passenger ships operated by PELNI - a state owned company still play significant roles as transport vessels for people and goods. In recent years, deregulation in air transportation system has given more market share for national airlines to operate in all corners of Indonesian archipelago. This new development clearly brings passenger ships in Indonesia into a new chapter of business competition.

Jet planes operated by a number of airlines in Indonesia greatly affect the market share of passenger ships in big coastal cities. However, the number of people who travel by ships is still high. To remain competitive in transporting people and goods, new passenger ships that are ordered by PELNI lines from German Shipyards have been experiencing new design approaches. Because most of the middle class clients choose airplanes to travel, the number of cabins for Class 1 to Class 4 have been reduced. PELNI as the major operator of passenger ships know that by increasing more compartments for economy class, the company can still make huge profit. In addition, in cooperation with Department of Transportation, PELNI extends its service to smaller but rapidly growing towns. The extension of the service needs the construction of new harbors or piers for PELNI ships whose capacity can reach up to 3,000 passengers per vessel. In addition, PELNI also offer car transport service for car owners who want to go to another town by using their own car.
During holiday times, PELNI's passenger ships often carry passengers more than their intended capacities, more life saving equipments have to be installed in the ship to minimize the number of casualties if there is accident at sea. We must remember that the RMS Titanic accident that sank in the Atlantic ocean must not happen again in this modern times.
When transatlantic passenger ships had long ceased from operation in late 1950s when jetplanes began to transport people between Europe and the New World, passenger ships in Indonesia was still at its first page of development. Now even though the whole Indonesia's air space has been filled with airplanes, passenger ships continue to serve people throughout this great maritime nation. by Charles Roring
Also read:

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• Passenger ship in Geelvink bay