The Jakarta Post
National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will open five new domestic routes in the first quarter of 2012, connecting the capital city of North Sumatra, Medan, with other cities across the archipelago, a senior executive said on Sunday.
The airline finance director, Elisa Lumbantoruan, said the newly opened routes were Medan–Bandung, Medan–Pekanbaru, Medan–Surabaya, Medan–Makassar, and Medan–Denpasar.
“We will open the new routes linking Medan to other big cities in the country because we see a strong flight demand to and from Medan,” Elisa told The Jakarta Post.
He said that the higher demand was because North Sumatra had become an emerging tourism site after cultural and heritage festivals such as the Lake Toba Festival and Samosir Festival had been held annually for the past several years.
Medan is also one of the country’s most vibrant busines...