Garuda plans daily Asian destinations

PUBLICLY listed Garuda Indonesia says all international routes in Asia and Australia served by the airline will see gradual increases in flights until all destinations are served on a daily basis. Such a target should be achieved by the end of this year, the company said.

To support the plan, Garuda expects to have 11 new aircraft this year, consisting of four Boeing B737-800 New Generation, two Airbus A330-200 and five 100 sub-seaters.

Garuda currently flies to 19 international destinations across Asia, Australia and Europe.

We are trying to increase flights for international destinations in Asia and Europe. We even plan to have two flights a day for special routes such as for Jakarta-Hong Kong, marketing director Arif Wibowo said on Thursday.

The plan, he said, was in line with the companys ambition to be a prominent regional player, targeting to increase the total number of international flight passengers to 22 million from 17 million last year.

Arif said the companys stronger focus on the Asian and Australian markets reflected its confidence in the resilience of economies in Asia amid the crises in the US and Europe.

Earlier this week, Garuda announced cuts to its Jakarta-Amsterdam via Dubai flights from seven to four times a week as of March 1 due to sluggish demand.

Arif said the flight reductions to Europe vis-a-vis Amsterdam was temporary. We are still planning to expand our network in Europe such as Frankfurt and Rome in 2013, provided that the economic condition in the eurozone improves, he said.

In October, Garuda increased flight frequencies on a number of routes, such as Denpasar-Sydney from six to seven times a week, Denpasar-Seoul from five to seven times a week, Jakarta-Melbourne from three to four times a week, and Denpasar-Melbourne from four to five times a week.

In addition, since the end of December last year, the airline increased its Jakarta-Shanghai flights from five to seven times a week, Jakarta-Beijing flights from three to five times a week and Jakarta-Seoul flights from six to seven times a week.

The Jakarta Post/ANN