Garuda adds Direct International Flights to Bali from Perth and Osaka

Nov 23rd 2006

After protests from the tourism industry in Bali that Garuda Indonesia not scrap Bali as the airline’s second hub, Garuda’s President Director, Emiersyah Satar finally confirmed that Garuda will continue to operate direct flights to Bali from abroad, reports Kompas daily. As a matter of fact, Garuda plans to expand its international network so that passengers may have a choice of alternatives, for tourists to fly direct to Bali, and for businessmen direct to Jakarta, said Emirsyah.

The number of international passengers carried by Garuda to Bali during January through September 2006 was 526,544 or 8.4% of total passengers carried, contributing 22.4% of the airline’s total income for that period. Garuda offers a total 1.1 million seats , equal to one third of total available seats, direct to Bali from Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Tokyo, Osaka and Singapore.  While Garuda serves a total 21 cities, including from Jakarta to Bangkok, Hongkong, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Jeddah and Riyadh.

“Bali has strategic value for Garuda, so that Garuda will not stop flying to Bali, especially since Garuda is committed to promote Indonesia’s tourism” underlines Emirsyah.

Garuda is at present indeed restructuring its international routes that use Airbus A-330 since its operational cost compared to number of passengers carried is not efficient. However, this does not mean that we are closing direct flights to Bali, said Garuda’s CEO.. 
 
In direct follow up actions, Garuda took an ad in the papers to announce more direct flights from Perth to Bali. Meanwhile, Garuda’s Japan General Manager recently announced that starting March 2007, Garuda will increase its three times weekly flights from Osaka to Bali to five times weekly. This is in response to increased demand that saw a rise up to 7,000 passengers per month for the airline. Japanese young people are, apparently less sensitive to travel warnings. Garuda’s average load factor from Osaka has, therefore, also risen to 77%, up from the low 48% post the 2003 terrorist bombs in Bali.

Next to direct flights to Bali, Garuda also plans direct international flights from Singapore to Semarang, Central Java starting 20 November, said Arjo Bardijan, GA GM in Semarang.