Indonesia First World Ocean Conference

With the World Ocean Conference 2009 happening next year in May on the northeastern Indonesian island of Sulawesi, direct flights to Manado from Davao, Philippines are expected to balloon many times over.

Considered the world's biggest event to take place next year in Indonesia, the World Ocean Conference is expected to draw some 10,000 international delegates from all over the world, accompanied by over 2,000 journalists, according to city councilor Peter Lavina, chairman of the committee on trade, commerce and industry of the city council in this bustling southern Philippine city.

Lavina revealed that presidents of the world's most powerful nations like US, China, Russia, Japan, Great Britain, Australia, heads of states, kings, queens, as well as top scientists and environmentalists will tackle wide-ranging topics on saving the world's oceans, protecting coral reefs, climate change, pollution, disappearing forests and global warming.

world ocean conferenceLavina, one of the most active advocates of the direct Davao-Manado flight urged the government and various industry groups here to prepare for the World Ocean Conference in Manado which is only an hour's flying time from this southern city.

"Let's take full advantage of this rare global event ---- it's going to attract thousands of international delegates and many of them will use this shorter, direct route from Davao to Manado instead of the longer route from Jakarta," Lavina said.

Direct flights from Davao to Manado was revived three months ago after the Indonesian airline, Sriwijaya Air, which used to ply the route gave up its operations late last year due to lack of air passengers.

A new Indonesian airline, Wings Air, took over the suspended route and revived the air traffic between the two neighboring cities which was established some years ago by the economic grouping of BIMP-EAGA (Brunei Indonesia Malaysia Philippines- East Asean Growth Area)

Trade Undersecretary Merly Cruz said this is exactly what the BIMP-EAGA group anticipated when the four countries agreed to establish direct air and sea linkages with each other to promote trade, tourism and investments in this part of the world.

"With these direct air and sea links, we're now seeing the growth of more trade deals, more tour packages, more investments and more venture partnerships between the four Asean countries," says Cruz who also chairs the BIMP-EAGA Senior Ministers Meetings in the region.

Daniel Jacobs, Wings Air district engineer for Manado said more and more passengers from Davao are filling up the seats of their 52-seater jetprop aircraft which flies weekly to Manado.

"Our flights are mostly fully booked--if we can't fill up the seats, we can always take in more cargo," Jacobs told mediamen here.

Most of the passengers today who use the direct Davao-Manado flights are local traders who buy cheap goods from Sulawesi and ship them back to Davao.

Others include overseas Filipino workers who work in Indonesia or Malaysia, businessmen who run joint-venture firms, fishermen and crew of Indonesian fishing vessels and foreign tourists looking for adventure in the exotic islands of Indonesia, according to Jacobs.

For the coming World Ocean Conference, Lavina said Indonesian airlines might be forced to come up with several bigger aircraft like the Airbus 330 to handle special chartered flights from Davao to accommodate the thousands of delegates and journalists on their way to Manado for the weeklong