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Airlines to add extra flights for Idul Fitri holiday
The government issued carriers permits for an additional 178 domestic flights and 196 international flights to prepare for the expected increase in passenger numbers during Idul Fitri
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he government issued carriers permits for an additional 178 domestic flights and 196 international flights to prepare for the expected increase in passenger numbers during Idul Fitri.
“As of Thursday, we cleared four local carriers to add to their domestic flights and cleared nine carriers to add to their international flights,” Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang S. Ervan said Friday.
The Transportation Ministry granted the permits to flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, Metro Batavia, Indonesia AirAsia and Travel Express, as well as foreign carriers Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Silk Air, China Airlines and Tiger Airways.
Holiday season: Passengers waiting for fl ights at Djuanda International Airport in Surabaya on Saturday. The government says 2.4 million people will take to the skies during the Idul Fitri holiday exodus, up from 2.1 million last year. Antara/Eric Ireng
The extra flights include routes from Jakarta to several popular homecoming destinations such as Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Semarang, Malang, Medan, Padang and Pekanbaru.
The ministry also approved extra flights to popular holiday destinations such as Bali and Hong Kong.
Garuda will add 37 flights, including from Jakarta to Denpasar, Yogyakarta, Padang and Solo, while AirAsia will add 10 flights to its Jakarta-Denpasar route.
Garuda spokesman Pujobroto said in addition to adding flights, the state-owned airline might also using widebody airplanes in certain routes.
Currently Garuda has Boeing 747-400 and Airbus A330-200/300 widebody airplanes and Boeing 737-300/400/500/800 narrowbody airplanes in its fleet.
Batavia will add 120 flights, including from Jakarta to Bengkulu, Yogyakarta, Malang, Pontianak, Semarang and Surabaya, while Travel Express will add 11 extra flights on its Jakarta-Makassar route.
On international routes, Cathay Pacific will add 31 flights, Hong Kong Airlines 15 flights, AirAsia 10 flights, Singapore Airlines 15 flights, Silk Air 30 flights, Garuda 13 flights, China Airlines 57 flights, Tiger Airways 11 flights and Malaysia Airlines 14 flights.
The extra flights, scheduled to run over a 16-day period from seven days before to seven days after Idul Fitri, are expected to accommodate 131,676 more people traveling by air.
Indonesia AirAsia corporate communications manager Audrey Progastama Petriny said AirAsia chose to add extra flights to its Bali and Singapore routes as it expect increased demand during the holiday season.
Audrey said the Jakarta–Yogyakarta route was another favorite route during the holiday that marks the end of Ramadhan.
She added that Air Asia had five daily flights serving the Jakarta-Yogyakarta route.
The government estimates there will be a 4.14 percent increase in the number of holiday travelers to 15.4 million this year, up from 14.8 million last year.
The ministry estimates the number of air passengers would increase by 15 percent to 2.4 million from 2.1 million last year, the highest among all means of transportation.
Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi said in July the capacity of air transportation would be boosted to 4.17 million passengers this year from 3.49 million passengers last year.
To prevent ticket prices from spiralling out of control, the government has also imposed ceiling prices for all means of transportation, ranging from 85 percent to 100 percent for airline tickets. (swd)
