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fter 14 years of closure, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has officially reopened its Medan-Singapore route to boost foreign arrivals at the North Sumatran capital.

The route will enable Garuda passengers to travel from the Kualanamu International Airport to the Changi International Airport in Singapore and vice versa.

Garuda president director Arif Wibowo said that the reoperation of the route was part of Garuda’s business strategy to expand the number of its international flights, as well as to bolster visits from neighboring countries by taking advantage of the era of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).

“This strategic route is expected to further boost tourism growth in North Sumatra,” he said during his speech at the route inauguration on Tuesday.

The carrier uses Boeing 737-800 Next Generation (NG) aircraft with a capacity of 162 seats to operate one round trip a day, with a possibility to add more flights if demand increases.

Garuda ended its Medan-Singapore flight in 2002 because of low public interest only a year after the route was established at the former Polonia International Airport, now the Soewondo Air Force Base.

Following the route reoperation, the publicly listed company will join other airlines, such Lion Air, JetStar and Batik Air, which already operate on the Medan-Singapore route.

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said the flight would help foreign visitors acknowledge the attractive tourism destinations in North Sumatra. One of them is the 100-kilometer-long Lake Toba, which is Southeast Asia’s biggest lake and a priority tourism destination set by the government.

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), North Sumatra welcomed only 64,504 foreign visitors during the first four months of 2016, down 18 percent from last year’s figure of 79,098.

Singaporean visitors to North Sumatra amounted to 3,887 in the period, lower than the 4,188 visitors a year ago.

“The government targets 1 million foreign visitors to Medan after the route is opened,” Arief said, adding that he hoped the reopening of the route would also promote the government’s “free visa facility” that was issued last March to 169 countries.  

A Medan-based tour agent, Tandeanus Sukardi, expressed hope that the new schedule would be the first step for Garuda to connect the route to European flights.

“Garuda has Amsterdam and London flights through Singapore. Hopefully this will result in better flight connections to Medan for European visitors,” he told The Jakarta Post.

As a travel agent, he acknowledged that so far Singaporean tourists found North Sumatra attractive, particularly top destinations like the mentioned Lake Toba, Berastagi town, and Taman Simalem Resort.

“There are roughly 15 Singaporeans using my agency’s services every week,” he said. (adt)