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ational flag carrier Garuda Indonesia signed an agreement with Taiwan-based China Airlines on code sharing, cargo operations and promotional activities to enhance traffic between the two countries.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Garuda Indonesia president director Emirsyah Satar and China Airline’s president, Huang-Hsiang Sun in Bali on Thursday.

“This agreement will strengthen the partnership between Garuda and China Airlines, especially in passenger flight code sharing and cargo operation,” Emirsyah said during the ceremony.

Garuda and China Airlines had begun a code-sharing partnership in 1991 for the Jakarta-Taipei route and for the Denpasar-Taipei route since 1995. These flights are available once a day with Airbus A330 aircraft for Jakarta-Taipei and Boeing B744 for Denpasar-Taipei flights.

China Airlines acted as the operating party, while Garuda Indonesia is allowed to sell 45 seats per day on the Denpasar-Taipei route and 30 seats for Jakarta-Taipei service. As for the cargo operation, Garuda is allocated 18 million load tons per year.

Under the new cooperation, Garuda is entitled to a Special Prorate Agreement (SPA) on routes served by Garuda to Taipei and beyond, such as other destinations in Asia, including Japan and the US.

The agreement also allows China Airlines to apply SPA on Garuda’s Jakarta to regional areas flights, as well as domestic routes in Indonesia.

In the future, the new code sharing deal will also include new routes, namely Surabaya-Hong Kong-Taipei, Surabaya-Singapore-Taipei and Denpasar-Hong Kong-Taipei.

According to Emirsyah, this new partnership offers customers a wider choice of service, as well as greater travel facilities and comfort, while for both airlines, the deal will further expand their global flight networks.

In terms of cargo transport, SPA on cargo will be introduced for Jakarta to the US route and Jakarta to Europe using aircraft from China Airlines.

Garuda Indonesia has opened new routes in succession since early February, namely from Surabaya to Hong Kong and Denpasar to Hong Kong, as well as a direct flight from Shanghai-Denpasar-Jakarta.

The move is followed by the opening of new domestic services in January to Tanjung Karang, Kendari and Malang. (nad)