Garuda to add 30,000 seats during holiday period

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will add 30,000 extra seats during the Idul Fitri holiday later this month when many Indonesian Muslims return to their hometowns, Garuda spokesperson Pujobroto said.

“We will add the extra seats from the middle of August to the middle of September to prepare for a significant increase in demand during Idul Fitri,” he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Pujobroto said the extra seats would be on flights from Jakarta to Solo, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Padang and Palembang, all of which popular are destinations during Idul Fitri.

He added that Garuda would also increase the number of flights to popular tourist destinations such as Bali and Singapore.

“To anticipate the increased number of passengers, we will also operate more wide-body aircrafts,” Pujobroto said.

He said air travel was expected to begin to increase three days before Idul Fitri, which falls on Aug. 30 – 31.

The government estimates that the number of air passengers during the holiday period would increase by 15 percent to 2.4 million from 2.1 million last year, the highest number compared to other modes of transportation. (swd)