The flight traffic of state airliner PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk grows after having declined due to the rupiah correction against the US dollar. President director Arif Wibowo said that the carrier notes an increasing number of passengers.
“The number of our domestic passengers grew 15.4 percent while passengers of international flights rose by 11.3 percent,” Arif said after opening the Garuda Indonesia Travel Fair on Friday, September 25.
Arif said that the greenback’s gain against the rupiah has affected domestic and international flights. However, he remains confident that the condition will not discourage customers from traveling.
Next year, said Arif, Garuda plans to add 15 aircraft to its fleet.
“Five Airbuses, a Boeing 777, and nine ATR 72600s,” he said.
Additionally, he said that Garuda will also add the number of flights from Shanghai to Denpasar. In the future, Ari hopes that Garuda could extend its wings further and fly to more international cities, especially in Japan, China, and Australia.
One of the strategies Garuda has taken to address the weak economy is holding a Garuda Indonesia Travel Fair. From this event, Garuda expects to book Rp242 billion in sales in 15 cities.
“For Jakarta, our sales target is Rp138 billion,” he said.
