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Garuda looking to fly to two more Chinese cities
National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is looking to expand its flight services to China later this year, to take advantage of the increase in outbound travelers from the worldâs second-largest economy
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National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is looking to expand its flight services to China later this year, to take advantage of the increase in outbound travelers from the world's second-largest economy.
I Wayan Subagia, Garuda Indonesia's China region vice president, said that the airline planned to provide direct flights to Chengdu and Chongqing, two major cities in Southwest China, this year.
'We are still looking at whether there is more interest for business travel or leisure from those two cities. Should there be more interest for business travel, we would open the routes to Jakarta. If we found more interest for leisure, then we would provide direct flights to Denpasar [Bali],' Wayan told reporters on Friday.
Since the company first entered the Chinese market in 2002, it has expanded its service to seven flights per week on all of its Chinese routes, which currently include Jakarta-Guangzhou, Jakarta-Beijing and Jakarta-Shanghai.
According to Wayan, the seat occupancy rate or passenger load factor from China has reached around 71 percent for every flight and the company is currently aiming to increase it to 75 percent.
'Our plan to open new routes to China is in line with the government's plan to boost [numbers of] Chinese business travelers and tourists,' Wayan said.
The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, through its Indonesia-China Tourism Years initiative launched last year, aims to boost the number of travelers from China to 1 million by the end of 2014.
However, according to a recent report by the China Tourism Academy, Chinese tourists consider Indonesia one of the most unsatisfying tourist destination options due to the country's infrastructure issues.
Indonesia ranked 20th among 22 destination countries in the Chinese outbound tourism satisfaction index for the first quarter of this year.
Other Southeast Asian neighbor countries ranked higher than Indonesia, namely Malaysia (16th), Thailand (7th) and Singapore (5th).
According to Wayan, Garuda sees an increase in Chinese passengers every year, especially leisure travelers.
'According to our study, from around 150 passengers with Chinese passports on any of our current flights from China, only 20 to 30 people are [traveling] for business purposes; the rest are coming to Indonesia for leisure,' Wayan said.
Garuda is looking to add another 27 aircraft to its current fleet of 141, to meet its target of flying at least 28 million passengers this year, up from 25 million in 2013.
The flag carrier suffered an increased net loss in the first quarter of this year due to rising competition and the depreciation of the rupiah against the US dollar.
For the first three months of this year, the airline posted a net loss of US$163.9 million, a significant increase from the loss of $33.75 million in the same period last year.
The airline is currently reviewing two potential buyers of a stake in its low-cost carrier unit, Citilink. Garuda decided to sell between 40 and 49 percent of its stake in Citilink after the latter's losses last year, with Garuda to remain the major shareholder.
Garuda started direct non-stop flights from Jakarta to Amsterdam on May 30, offering an easier connection for business and leisure travelers between the two cities.
The company's marketing director, Erik Meijer, said recently the flight would be the only direct route connecting Amsterdam and Jakarta.
In addition, the carrier is set to extend the Jakarta-Amsterdam route to the UK, namely to London's Gatwick Airport on Sept. 8, he said.
The airline will use its brand-new Boeing B777-300 Extended Range (ER) on the routes.
Previously, Garuda president director Emirsyah Satar said the company wanted to strengthen its international network by linking Jakarta to international destinations this year.
The new international destinations would be London, Manila in the Philippines and Mumbai in India, he said as quoted by Antara news agency.
