J

AKARTA: Privately owned carrier Lion Air will launch new routes connecting Bandung, West Java, to Surabaya, East Java and to Denpasar, Bali, this week.

General manager Edward Sirait said the airline would launch the Bandung-Surabaya route on Tuesday and the Bandung-Denpasar route on Wednesday. “Both routes have high potential yet not many players have grabbed the market. Thus, we want to tap into this opportunity,” he said.

 The airline will use Boeing 737-900 Extended Range (ER) to serve both routes.

Besides the attraction of both Surabaya as a business city and Bali as the country’s top tourist destination, these cities enable passengers from Bandung to travel to destinations in eastern Indonesia.

“From Surabaya and Denpasar, they can go to Makassar, Bima, Maumere and more destinations in the east,” he said.

The promotional fare for the Bandung-Surabaya service is Rp 360,000 (US$38.52), while the Bandung-Denpasar service is Rp 522,000, he said.

“We are optimistic that the load factor for both services will reach 80 percent,” he added.

He also said that the airline planned to connect Bandung to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Bangkok in Thailand in the future.

Besides Lion Air, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia introduced a Bandung-Surabaya service in February this year. Garuda operates the classic B737-500 aircraft to daily serve the route.