Indonesia's national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is set to add 30 new routes for both domestic and international flights, said airline spokesman Ikhsan Rosan on Sunday.
“We will immediately open two flights to China – Denpasar-Zhengzhou and Denpasar-Xi’an,” Ikhsan said at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, as reported by tempo.co.
The new routes from Denpasar in Bali to Zhengzhou and Xi'an in China starting at the end of January, stressing that China had the potential to contribute to Indonesia's tourism industry.
"These new routes also portray our optimism in increasing our market share. Currently, Garuda Indonesia's market share for Indonesia-China routes is around 35 percent," said Sigit Muhartono, Garuda’s Cargo Director to The Jakarta Post.
"As situation in Bali has returned to normal, we are optimistic that the opening of new routes can serve as an important momentum to further expand international tourist visit to Bali," Sigit said, as reported by Xinhua.
About 120 million Chinese nationals travel abroad annually, he said, adding that 1 million Chinese tourists visited Indonesia in 2017.
For the two new Chinese routes, Garuda Indonesia will fly five times a week using the Airbus A330-300, which can accommodate 360 passengers.
According to The Jakarta Post, Garuda Indonesia currently serves 63 direct flights per week to cities in China, namely Denpasar-Chengdu, Denpasar-Beijing, Denpasar-Guangzhou, Denpasar-Shanghai, Jakarta-Guangzhou, Jakarta-Beijing and Jakarta-Shanghai.
Ikhsan said for domestic services, the airline would send more flights to eastern Indonesian and provide feeder services from small, satellite cities to large cities like Medan in North Sumatra and Makassar in South Sulawesi.
