Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will open scheduled flights to India starting December 12, 2016. Garuda Indonesia will operate three flights a week from Jakarta to Mumbai via China.
Garuda Indonesia president director Arif Wibowo said that the flights will make one transit stop in China in first phase of operation.
“We will see how it goes in two or three months; if the results are good, we will make it direct flights,” he told reporters at a tourism event in Jakarta on Tuesday, December 6, 2016.
Arif went on to say that India has a huge potential considering its 1.4 billion population. On the other hand, the number of tourists traveling from India to Indonesia is quite significant at 300,000 arrivals per year.
As such, he is confident that seat occupancy rate of Garuda’s Boeing 737 to operate in that route will reach 70-75%.
“More so because it will start to operate on the right time, i.e. before year-end holidays,” he added.
Aside from India, Garuda will also open direct flights from China’s Chengdu province to Bali. Regular flights will commence mid-January 2017.
