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AKARTA: National airline Garuda Indonesia is set to open its third hub in Makassar in June.

“Starting June 1, 2011, Garuda will have a third hub located in the Sultan Hasanudin airport,” Garuda’s finance director Elisa Lumbantoruan told reporters on Friday.

She said that Garuda aimed to improve flight capacity and frequency to eastern Indonesia. The flag carrier has been flying to Ternate, Manado, Ambon, Palu, Poso, Papua and other regions from Makassar.

“With the high number of flights from and to [Makassar], we feel it is more efficient to have a hub there,” she added.

The move reflects the growing importance of Makassar’s leisure market. The region will now see direct flights to Singapore without stopovers in Jakarta starting June 1. Garuda will serve the route once a day and seven days a week with a Boeing 737-500 that has a capacity of 150 passengers.

Garuda has also been serving the Makassar-Denpasar-Australia route.

The company’s first two hubs are in the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, Jakarta, and in Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali. — JP