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Indonesian airlines plan to open more flights to Saudi Arabia
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Garuda Indonesia airlines are parked at Terminal 3 of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten. (Tempo/Tony Hartawan)
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t least two airlines have expressed their goals to open more flights to cities in Saudi Arabia, following an unlimited flight agreement between the Saudi and Indonesian governments during the visit of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
Under the agreement, Indonesian airlines can fly to five Saudi Arabian cities, Jeddah, Madina, Riyadh, Dammam and Thaif, without any limitations of frequency, while Saudi airlines could fly to Medan, Makassar, Surabaya, Denpasar and Jakarta.
Garuda Indonesia is studying the possibility of adding to the flight frequency to Saudi Arabia as a follow-up to the agreement, said Garuda Indonesia spokesman Benny Butarbutar as reported by tempo.co on Thursday.
(Read also: Minister urges aviation group to introduce Garuda flights to US market)
“Garuda's expansion strategy is to fly more to the Middle East,” said Benny as reported by tempo.co.
Meanwhile, Sriwijaya Air plans to fly to Jeddah starting this year. Sriwijaya Air Group president Chandra Lie said previously that the opening of flights to Jeddah was waiting on the arrival of new airlines.
“Initially, we wanted to start flying in December 2016 to send umroh (minor haj) pilgrims. But we are still waiting for the planes' arrival this year,” said Chandra
Sriwijaya plans to operate Boeing 777-300 ER plane, six times a week.
Previously, Indonesian airlines could only open 35 flights a week to Saudi Arabia, while airlines from Saudi Arabia could open a similar number of flights to Indonesia.
Transportation Ministry’s air transportation director general Agus santoso confirmed the new ruling, saying that “Indonesian aviation companies could open as many flights as possible to Saudi Arabia. (bbn)
