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nder a code-share agreement with Myanmar Airways International, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will now offer flights to Myanmar'€™s largest city, Yangon, to support growing cooperation between the two countries.

With the code-share agreement, which was signed on Tuesday by Garuda Indonesia'€™s executive vice president of sales and marketing Erik Meijer and Myanmar Airways International'€™s managing director Si Thu, the carriers will connect Jakarta and Yangon via Singapore and Bangkok.

The flights are currently waiting for final government approvals, but are targeted to begin operating daily in December this year.

Garuda Indonesia president director Emirsyah Satar said that the agreement was expected to boost trade and tourism between the two countries, as supported by the central government.

'€œAs we all know, our president, Bapak [Joko] '€œJokowi'€ [Widodo], had a bilateral meeting with Myanmar'€™s President U Thein Sein to affirm Indonesia'€™s commitment to invest in Myanmar in the fields of agriculture, mining, telecommunications and energy and as well in the economic sector in general,'€ Emirsyah said during the signing ceremony. '€œWe do hope that this will facilitate [the commitment] in terms of transportation between the two countries.'€

Jokowi was in Myanmar earlier this month to attend the ASEAN and East Asia summits after a visit to Beijing, China, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Thu said that the new code-share services with Garuda Indonesia showed that Indonesia was an increasingly important market to Myanmar.

'€œWe are glad that our passengers will be offered a wider choice of destinations as well as greater flexibility and convenience when traveling between Yangon and major cities in Indonesia with this new code-share service,'€ he said.

Emirsyah said that the traffic between Myanmar and Indonesia had increased quite dramatically over recent years, from 4,500 passengers per month last year to around 6,000 passengers per month this year.

'€œIn terms of numbers I guess it'€™s not as big as the Jakarta-Singapore or Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur routes. But I think this is a beginning where we can continue on and we hope that direct flights between Indonesia and Myanmar can happen, to accelerate the growth of the traffic,'€ Emirsyah said.

Nevertheless, he said that the airline did not plan to open a direct flight route to Myanmar in the near future, saying that the firm would firstly evaluate the market potential following the code-share agreement.

'€œOne of the favorite destinations in Indonesia according to the people of Myanmar is Borobudur [temple]. And I think Yogyakarta is one of the destinations that could connect directly between Myanmar and Indonesia,'€ Emirsyah said.

Garuda recorded up to US$206.4 million in comprehensive losses in the first nine months of 2014, compared with a $32.54-million loss recorded in the same period last year.

The state-owned airline failed to improve its net loss due to a global economic slowdown that has hurt worldwide demand, coupled with rising operational costs and the rupiah'€™s depreciation against the US dollar.