Garuda Indonesia will be increasing seasonal flight frequencies on Jakarta-Australia routes from four to five weekly, and Bali-Australia routes from six to seven weekly, from May until October 2017.
Destinations in Australia include Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
At a joint press conference with Tourism Australia in Jakarta yesterday, Arif Wibowo, CEO of Garuda Indonesia said: “(Through our flights) we are inviting more Australians to be part of Indonesia’s target to achieve 20 million tourists by (2019), and encouraging more Indonesians to travel to Australia.”
With an average load factor of 75 per cent, Garuda carried 644,000 passengers on Australian services last year, 17 per cent higher than in 2015. With the additional flights, it is expecting to carry 650,000 passengers this year.
Australia’s minister for trade, tourism and investment, Steven Ciobo, who is currently in Indonesia leading a high-level delegation for the Indonesia Australia Business Week (March 6-10, 2017), said: “Indonesia is one of Australia’s fastest-growing markets (in terms of) international visitors, and is Australia’s 12th largest market for international visitor arrivals.
“Indonesia has the potential to be worth over A$1 billion (US$760 million) in overnight visitation by 2020, and we hope that Garuda’s announcement will help us achieve that.”
Last year, arrivals from Indonesia totalled 174,400, an increase of 13.8 per cent, year-on-year. In December 2016 alone, the total arrivals from Indonesia was 26,600, a year-on-year increase of 43.8 per cent. For the year ending September 2016, Indonesians spent A$0.7 billion in Australia, an increase of 19 per cent year on year.
As part of its efforts to boost business from Indonesia and its partnerships with the airline and the industry, Tourism Australia has also formed bank partnerships in Indonesia over the last few years.
Brent Anderson, Tourism Australia’s manager – Singapore and Indonesia, said: “(Working with the banks) is unique to Indonesia. We have a direct partnership with BCA Bank which gives us the middle-class and upper middle class, and Bank Danamon as the publisher of American Express cards in Indonesia for the luxury market.”
With all this in place, Ciobo indicated that he expects the growth rate of arrivals from Indonesia would be 20 to 25 per cent in the years to come.
