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.
Citilink to serve workers going to Johor Bahru
Low-cost carrier Citilink is starting to serve Indonesian migrant workers heading to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, on Saturday, providing them with âend-to-endâ transportation
Change Size
L
ow-cost carrier Citilink is starting to serve Indonesian migrant workers heading to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, on Saturday, providing them with 'end-to-end' transportation.
'We will not only provide the flights from Surabaya [East Java] to Johor Bahru, but also the land transportation services, for instance from Blitar, Kediri and Tulung Agung [all in East Java] to Surabaya, so that migrant workers can travel safely from their homes to the [Surabaya] airport,' Citilink CEO Arif Wibowo said on Friday after a signing ceremony.
Citilink inked an agreement with the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) on the service.
The low-cost carrier also received support from the East Java administration for the new route.
East Java provincial secretary Akhmad Sukardi said in a statement that the administration expected the new route to boost the number of Malaysian tourists visiting the province, in line with the 'Visit East Java' tourism campaign.
'With economic growth of 6.5 percent, East Java provides great business opportunities, including in the aviation sector,' Arif said.
Separately, BNP2TKI head Jumhur Hidayat said that the cooperation was initiated to ensure migrant workers' safety and security.
'This is solely a private-to-private cooperation, definitely not a monopoly,' Jumhur said.
'We just help to inform the 570 migrant worker placement companies about the facilities provided by the carrier,' he said, adding that full-service airlines usually provided such facilities.
The flights from Surabaya to Johor Bahru are part of a series of Citilink route expansions this year, to be followed by the opening of a new Surabaya-Kuala Lumpur route on April 3.
A new route from Denpasar, Bali, to Perth, Australia, is also scheduled to commence this year.
The subsidiary of publicly listed national flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia also plans to expand its services this year to several other countries that are major destinations for migrant workers, such as Taiwan and Hong Kong.
'Our plan is first to expand our routes in the region, especially to the main destination countries for migrant workers,' Arif said.
Opening new regional routes is one of the airline's strategies for garnering greater revenue in US dollars, to improve its financial performance, Arif has previously said.
Last year, Citilink incurred losses of US$48.4 million after booking total revenue of $273.4 million. The private firm gave no financial figures for the previous year.
The airline's current regional flights account for 10 percent of its total routes. It aims to increase its international flights by 20 percent by 2018. Citilink now offers passengers 28 domestic routes to 22 cities.
The airline's parent company, Garuda, is planning to sell a maximum of 40 percent of Citilink's shares to strategic investors, as it prepares to list Citilink on the stock exchange in 2015.
