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ingapore Airlines plans to further increase its flights from the neighboring country to the tourist resort of Lombok and the oil city of Balikpapan to meet the surging number of passengers using the routes, a senior official with the airline announced in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The airline’s general manager David Lau said the airline planned to increase the Singapore–Lombok route from three times a week to five times a week, while the Singapore–Balikpapan route would increase from six times a week to one flight per day.

“Lombok is a good alternative to Bali and people love going there for leisure. We are still waiting for final approval from the government for the additional flights,” David said.

He said the flights to Balikpapan were to be increased to meet the increase in passengers from and to the capital of East Kalimantan, one of the country’s major producers of oil, gas and coal.

“There is a very good chance that we will add more flights to Balikpapan,” he said.

To meet the strong demand from foreign tourists and local passengers, the airline recently increased its flights on the Singapore–Bandung and Singapore–Pekanbaru routes.

Services between Singapore and Bandung now ran five times a week, up from three times a week previously, while the Singapore–Pekanbaru flights have increased from once a week to three times a week, he said.

“Indonesia’s investment climate has improved a great deal and more people come to Indonesia on business,” he said.

He did not have the actual figure of Indonesian passengers using Singapore Airlines; he did say, however, that the company consistently recorded double-digit growth in Indonesia-bound passengers, thanks primarily to the country’s expanding middle-class.

In addition, the airline is going to collaborate with Indonesia’s Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry to promote Indonesia to the world this year.

“The memorandum of understanding [MoU] is going to be signed sometime in February.” Glory Henriette, the airline’s public relations manager, confirmed.

Indonesia would be able to promote its tourism in the airline’s in-flight magazines and videos for a year.

Such a promotion will expose Indonesia to the airline’s passengers in Europe, America, Asia and
Australia.

David said the airline’s route network, including services provided by subsidiary Silk Air, covered 96 destinations in 37 countries.

“We fly to 11 destinations in Indonesia and this partnership will be mutually beneficial,” David said.

Besides Jakarta, Bandung and Balikpapan, Singapore Airlines also flies from Singapore to Surakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Manado. (nfo)