Starting in October this year, Citilink will provide regular direct flights every day to Kunming, Xiamen and Nanjang from Jakarta, Denpasar and Manado, respectively.

The three cities were selected because they are important secondary cities in China, said Juliandra Nurtjahjo, Citilink's president director, when announcing the new routes in Jakarta on Friday.

He said the new routes were expected to increase tourist arrivals to Indonesia.

"The statistic shows that 78 million mainland Chinese residents traveled abroad in the first half of this year. But only a small number of them traveled to Indonesia," he said, adding that in 2017 only 1.9 million Chinese travelers went to Indonesia.

For its new international routes, Citilink is partnering with Megacap Aviation Service, a sales agent that would represent Citilink in China to sell and promote the tickets.

With its new international flight to China, Citilink will have five international routes as previously they already had a Jakarta to Penang route and a Denpasar to Dili route. In addition, Citilink also has operated charter flights to several Chinese cities.

"So far, the performance of the international routes is good. Our occupancy rates for the routes are above 90 percent," he said. He added that the new routes to the Chinese cities were expected to help Citilink to achieve its target of 15 million passengers this year.  (bbn)

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