THE sun seems reluctant still to shine on the blue ocean routes that PT Pelayaran Nasional Indonesia (Pelni) plies. For the past four years, passenger occupancy rate is merely 50 percent. In the past, the average could reach 180 percent.

Pelni Business Director, Jussabella Sahea, pointed at the increasing number of iron birds in the air enticing Pelni passengers. The emergence of new airlines in 2000 meant disaster for Pelni. Because of them, fare