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Amsterdam a go, Frankfurt and London on the map

With permission to fly to Europe now secured, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will resume flights from Jakarta to Amsterdam early next year, and sees Frankfurt and London on the map soon

Benget Besalicto Tnb. (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, July 16, 2009

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Amsterdam a go, Frankfurt and London on the map

W

ith permission to fly to Europe now secured, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will resume flights from Jakarta to Amsterdam early next year, and sees Frankfurt and London on the map soon.

The airline said Wednesday it would take six to nine months of preparation prior to resumed flights to Amsterdam - a route it abandoned prior to the European Commission-imposed flight ban in 2007.

EU member countries endorsed Tuesday a recommendation on the lifting of air restrictions on Garuda and three other Indonesian airlines: Mandala Air, Premiair and Air Fast.

"We once served routes from Jakarta to Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London," Garuda vice president for corporate communications, Pudjobroto, told The Jakarta Post.

"I think we'll start by reviving the Jakarta-Amsterdam route."

For its first flight to Amsterdam, the airline plans to use an Airbus A330-200, transiting in Dubai.

"In 2011, when we've received all our orders of aircraft, we'll use a Boeing 777 to serve the European routes," Pudjobroto said.

"This aircraft can fly up to 15 hours non-stop. So we can fly direct from Jakarta to Europe, without a stopover in Dubai."

He added Garuda had ordered 50 Boeing 737-800NGs and 10 Boeing 777s, set for delivery in 2011.

Garuda closed the route to Amsterdam in 2004 on the back of rising costs. When asked about the potential revenue to be derived from the flight services to Europe, Pudjobroto said that remained uncertain.

"Currently, our revenue split from domestic and foreign flights is 50-50," he said.

"But we don't know about the European routes."

To maintain the sustainability of the European route, Pudjobroto said Garuda would focus on improving its competitive leverage over other airlines plying the same route.

"Since the European routes are very competitive, we'll improve our service quality and make our ticket prices more competitive," he said.

The sustainability of the route also depended on the government, he said, as the industry supervisor and regulator. The flight ban, he added, had more to do with the government's role in ensuring air safety.

Garuda, he said, had no problem with air safety, as it still flew to places with high safety standards in place, including Australia, Hong Kong and Japan.

For Garuda, the flight ban not only caused a loss of potential income from not being able to fly to Europe, but also from declining passengers from Europe traveling domestically or internationally on Garuda flights, after their insurance firms imposed higher premiums if travelers chose the national carrier.

Garuda is currently receiving extra attention from the government to improve its financial performance, and recently managed to book a profit after years in the red.

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