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Garuda to resume more European flights next year

After resuming its Jakarta — Amsterdam service last week, national flagged carrier PT Garuda Indonesia Airways expects to serve four other European cities in February, next year, the airline’s executive has said

Nani Afrida (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, June 17, 2010

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Garuda to resume more European flights next year

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fter resuming its Jakarta — Amsterdam service last week, national flagged carrier PT Garuda Indonesia Airways expects to serve four other European cities in February, next year, the airline’s executive has said.

“We plan to fly to Italy, London, Paris and Frankfurt, starting February next year,” Garuda technical and maintenance director Hadinoto Sudigno told The Jakarta Post in Jakarta on Wednesday.

He said that Garuda was ordering new aircraft to support its expanding services to Europe. “We will have two new Airbus A330-200 aircrafts to support the new routes to Europe,” Hadinoto said, adding that the two Airbus jets would be delivered in December 2010 and February 2011, respectively.

At present, Garuda operates four Airbus A330-200 aircraft to serve the Jakarta-Amsterdam route. The flight departs daily from Jakarta at 8:40 p.m. and and 11 a.m. from Amsterdam.

Garuda stopped its flights to Europe late 2004 as part of the airline’s consolidation measures. EU’s decision issued in 2007 to prohibit Indonesian airlines to flight the region had affected Garuda’s plan to resume its flights, until the ban was removed in 2009.

Besides opening new routes to Europe, Garuda also plans to implement a green aviation concept for its aircraft. By adopting the green concept, the airline is expected to be able to resume its flight to the US in 2013, which was stopped due to financial crisis in 1998, Hadinoto said.

He said that Garuda expected to receive 24 new Boeing 737-800 aircraft this year to replace 10 of the old Boeing B737-400 jets. “The new aircraft have a system which can reduce carbon emission,” Hadinoto said. The airline has ordered 40  new Boeing 737-800 aircraft to serve domestic and international routes.

USA Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had been working on a regulation requiring airlines to use jet fuel which has a minimum 30 percent of biofuel content.

Hadinoto hoped that Pertamina would be able to produce biofuel-based jet fuel in order to comply with the FAA.

The vice president corporate communication (VP Corcom) PT Pertamina, Basuki Trikora Putra acknowledged that Pertamina hadn’t yet produced biofuel-based  fuels for airplanes.

“However, if there is sufficient demand for such a fuels, Pertamina will certainly try to meet the demand,” he said.

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