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alindo Air, a subsidiary of Indonesian budget airline Lion Air Group, has expressed its intention to open more international routes from the Hang Nadim International Airport in Batam following its recent debut flight to neighboring Malaysia from the airport.

Malindo Air, a subsidiary of Indonesian budget airline Lion Air Group, had planned to fly from Batam, Riau Islands to Hong Kong and Bangkok, Thailand earlier next year, following the opening of its Batam to Subang, Malaysia route at the end of May.

'€œI cannot say when the exact time is to launch the new routes next year. We see that the market potential is positive,'€ Lion Air'€™s Batam chapter manager Mahrido said last week.

Malindo Air is the second flight operator that serves international routes from the Hang Nadim airport, following the first service provided by Firefly, a Malaysian regional airline company.

Mahrido said the company'€™s opening of new international routes from Batam was meant to give passengers another alternative in addition to going through the Changi International Airport in Singapore.

The airline serves the one-hour flight of Batam-Subang route with a 72-passenger-capacity ATR 72-600 aircraft three times a week on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, according to Mahrido.

As for the Batam-Hong Kong and Batam-Bangkok routes, he said the company would provide Boeing 737-900 ER and 737-800 NG aircraft respectively.

Meanwhile, Citilink Indonesia, a subsidiary of state-owned airline firm PT Garuda Indonesia, opened on July 26 a chartered flight from Denpasar, Bali to Chingqing Jiangbei, China with a transfer at the Hang Nadim airport.

Citilink'€™s Batam chapter station manager Hendra Rusli told The Jakarta Post that the Denpasar-Batam-Chongqing Jiangbei route was only intended to provide a landing place for aircraft to refuel.

The company halted the route temporarily in the middle of September and would open it again in early October, even though it has yet to start a regular international flight from Batam because it wanted to concentrate on domestic routes, Hendra said.

'€œWe see that the number of passengers flying directly from Asia to Riau Islands is still small,'€ he added.

Previously, the Batam Free Trade Zone Management Agency had conducted an expansion of the Hang Nadim airport apron worth Rp 110 billion (US$9.15 million) to accommodate an additional four to six narrow-body Boeing 737 aircraft, from the current 12, starting in the middle of next year.

Dwi Joko Wiwoho, the agency'€™s spokesman and director of the Batam One-Stop Integrated Services (PTSP), said the expansion funds came from the airport'€™s non-tax state income (PNBP) in 2014 and 2015 and were being disbursed in two phases: Rp 50 billion this year and Rp 60 billion next year.

He said the 33,600-square meter expansion would enlarge the airport'€™s total apron size from 110,542 square meters to 144,142 square meters.

Dwi said the Hang Nadim airport, besides expanding its apron, would also enlarge its passenger terminal to deal with an increase of the number of passengers and flights.

According to the agency'€™s data, the Hang Nadim airport served 4 million passengers by the end of last year, which was a 6.3 percent increase from 3.76 million in 2012 and 5.26 percent from 3.38 million in 2011 respectively.

The airport is scheduled for expansion to serve 8 million passengers each year, an increase from 5 million currently. (gda)