Shortly after Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism announced a sharpened focus on boosting seat numbers into the country, new pipeline routes were revealed from its visit to the offices of Sriwijaya Air, AirAsia, Garuda Indonesia and Angkasa Pura II in Cengkareng last Monday.
Toto Nursatyo, commercial director of Sriwijaya Air, said: “This year, we will receive 12 new aircraft so we will be able to bring in more tourists here… China now (makes up) 80 per cent of our international network, and we will expand our network to Australia and India.”
Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali
He shared that the airline has the rights to fly to 48 cities in China, but will focus on connecting eight cities in China with more destinations in Indonesia, such as Medan and Makassar, on charter basis.
“Currently, we have flights from Guangzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, Nanjing, Jianjien and Fushan (to Bali and some to Manado).These are the major sources of tourists from China.”
Meanwhile, AirAsia plans to open new services between Indonesia and China and India via Kuala Lumpur this year, targeted to commence in October and May respectively.
Dendy Kurniawan, group CEO of AirAsia Indonesia, said: “We will announce the routes and exact flying dates when we are ready. Currently, we are still in the preparation stage.”
On the other hand, Garuda’s new president and CEO Pahala Nugraha Mansury told the media that the airline is now reviewing plans to launch several new services, on top of additional seasonal services to Australia.
“We are having internal reviews on (operations), including plans to open services (from Jakarta) to Moscow and the US as well as from Bali to Chengdu. We will announce the results (soon),” he said.
