GARUDA Indonesia has launched new domestic and international routes to expand its network and meet growing market needs.
The new daily domestic services which commenced on May 1 were Medan-Surabaya, Palembang-Denpasar, Makassar-Jogjakarta, Surabaya-Ambon and Denpasar-Banyuwangi-Surabaya.
These routes are operated with CRJ-1000 NextGen aircraft with 96 seats in two classes, except for the Denpasar-Banyuwangi-Surabaya service which uses ATR72-600 with 70 seats, single class.
Erik Meijer, executive vice president marketing and sales, said: “With the expansion of the Indonesia domestic network, Garuda continues to support the connectivity between regions in the country to grow the economy, businesses and tourism in these destinations connected.”
An international route linking Makassar-Medan-Jeddah three times a week also commenced on May 1. Garuda has deployed a Boeing 747-400 with a capacity of 457 passengers in two classes for the service, which is meant to cater for umrah pilgrimage travellers from Makassar and Medan areas.
With this new service, travellers from Makassar and Medan do not need to transit in Jakarta, making their trip to Jeddah more convenient, said Meijer.
In the mean time, the airline will upgrade the current Jakarta-Abu Dhabi-Amsterdam to a direct service as of May 30, making the Dutch capital its hub for Europe and beyond (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 19, 2014).
Garuda will therefore be able to connect Indonesia and Europe within a total flying time of 15 hours.
The carrier will continue to serve the Jakarta-Abu Dhabi leg, a codeshare with Etihad Airways.
