TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Garuda to spread its wings to London’s Gatwick in Q4

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will be expanding its international network with direct flights to and from London, UK in the fourth quarter of this year to help boost economic activities between the two countries

Nurfika Osman (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, February 4, 2013

Share This Article

Change Size

Garuda to spread its wings to London’s Gatwick in Q4

N

ational flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will be expanding its international network with direct flights to and from London, UK in the fourth quarter of this year to help boost economic activities between the two countries.

The airline chose Gatwick Airport to operate the direct flight service, making Gatwick the only UK airport to link passengers directly to the capital city.

President director Emirsyah Satar said that both business and leisure passengers would be able to fly between Indonesia and the UK six times a week.

“This flight will make travelling more convenient as it will be providing nonstop flights between the cities with our brand new Boeing 777-300 Extended Range aircraft, which will be equipped with WiFi and an onboard chef for first class passengers,” Emirsyah said in a statement sent to The Jakarta Post.

The B777-300ER is a long-range wide-body twin engine jet capable of carrying over 300 passengers.

“This direct flight will complement the existing Jakarta-Amsterdam via Abu Dhabi route, as part of Garuda’s Quantum Leap 2011-2015 program to develop the international network and become a global player,” he said.

The new connection was also expected to open up direct access from Southeast Asia to Europe and vice versa as Gatwick provided accessibility options into Europe and beyond, he said.

In addition, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that Indonesia was an important market for the UK. Bilateral trade is growing and in April 2012, during Cameron’s visit to Indonesia, a partnership commitment to double trade to £4.4 billion (US$5.96 billion) by 2015 was announced.

“We want to link Britain up with the world’s fastest growing economies and good air links are a vital to achieving that. This new route from London to Jakarta is good for British business and will helping it compete in the global race,” Cameron said in the statement.

Before London, Garuda had expanded its network to Europe through codeshare agreements with other international airlines including Etihad Airways, which enables passengers to fly into major cities across Europe such as Dublin, Geneva, Istanbul, Milan, Munich, Paris and Rome.

In addition to the new London route, the carrier will also open two more international routes linking the capital city to Auckland, New Zealand and Brisbane, Australia this year.

To support this expansion, it will take delivery of 24 new planes at a cost of $1.57 billion.

They comprise four B777-300 ERs, 10 B737-800 Next Generation (NG)s, two Airbus A330-320s, one A330-300s and seven Bombardier CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft.

The aircraft will also be used to help strengthen Garuda’s domestic networks such as the Canadian Bombardier jet that will support its short-range, high-density routes, especially in eastern Indonesia.

Garuda currently operates 96 aircraft with an average age of 6.23 years and flies to 33 domestic destinations and 18 international destinations including Bangkok, Beijing, Jeddah, Melbourne, Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo.

Under the airline’s Quantum Leap program, it plans to increase its fleet numbers to 194 aircraft with an average age of five years by the end of 2015.

{

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.