Batavia Air to spread wings to South Korea

Domestic carrier Batavia Air is set to launch the Jakarta - Incheon, South Korea route next year, said the airline commercial director Sukirno Sukima on Tuesday.

Batavia’s upcoming route, he said, was backed by cooperation between the Indonesian and South Korean governments.

“The South Korean government has asked Indonesia to increase flight frequency to Incheon from 10 times to 23 times a week,” he said in Jakarta, as quoted kontan.co.id.

Garuda Indonesia is currently the only Indonesian airline to serve the route.

Batavia Air is submitting a request for the route permit to the Transportation Ministry.

The ailrine serves more than 50 routes across Indonesia and Asia, including to Hangzhou and Guangzhou in China, and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

Based on ministry data, Batavia Air passengers reached almost 7 million last year: 6.75 million domestic passengers and 292,280 international passengers.

In the first semester of this year, Batavia Air carried 3.8 million passengers, up 5.55 percent compared to the same period last year of 3.6 million passengers. (yps)