More Flights Between Indonesia and Australia
More Flights Between Indonesia and Australia
Garuda Indonesia will join other airlines in increasing flights to Australia during the next six months.
Virgin Blue’s subsidiary, Pacific Blue, and Qantas offshoot, Jetstar, have increased their capacity to Indonesia to cater for a stronger holiday demand. Strategic Airlines, based in Brisbane, has also boosted flights to Bali.
Garuda will increase flights between Melbourne and Jakarta by the middle of the year, and is considering starting services to the Gold Coast. Some of the A330s and new generation 737s that the airline will take delivery of this year will fly to Australia according to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Chief executive, Emirsyah Satar, has said that he was more focused on increasing capacity between Australia and Indonesia than opening new routes,and was interested in starting services to the Gold Coast.
The Indonesian route has become increasingly dominated by low-cost airlines such as Jetstar and Pacific Blue, but Mr. Satar said he believed the market was big enough to offer growth for full-service carriers. Garuda forecasts annual passenger growth for the Australia-Indonesia market of 5 to 8%.
Garuda flights between Melbourne and Jakarta will increase from three to seven a week. It also has daily services between Bali and Melbourne, daily flights from Sydney to Jakarta and Bali, and three flights a day between Perth and Bali.
Although routes to Indonesia have historically been dominated by leisure travellers, Mr. Satar said the airline had noticed a rise in business traffic to Jakarta in recent years.
Mr. Satar, who was appointed in 2005 to turn around the struggling airline, said the strength of the Australian dollar had partly increased demand, but he believed Indonesia had become a more attractive destination for Australians.