Garuda adds flights to Mideast, U.S. and Europe

JAKARTA (JP): National air carrier Garuda Indonesia has added more services to the Middle East, the United States and Europe this winter to meet demand.

Garuda said in a statement here yesterday that the winter schedule would be effective until March 30, 1998.

"In addition to the extra flights, there is also a reduction in services and routes under the joint cooperation with foreign airlines," the company said.

Added flights include the Jakarta-Frankfurt route (from five flights per week to daily flights, four of which are nonstop), Jakarta-Amsterdam (from five times to six times per week) and Jakarta-Seoul (from five times per week to daily flights).

The Jakarta-Honolulu-Los Angeles route had also been increased to seven times from the previous five times per week, Garuda said.

Domestically, the airline added the Jakarta-Surabaya route from thrice weekly to daily flights.

Garuda has also added one service each to the routes of Surabaya-Hong Kong-Taipei, Surabaya-Singapore-Hong Kong, Jakarta- Singapore and Surabaya-Denpasar.

"The destinations under a joint-operation scheme include Amman, Abu Dhabi, Rome, Zurich, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City and Kaohsiung. Garuda will serve the cities in alliance with airlines Alitalia, Swissair, Southern China and Vietnam Airlines," Garuda said.

The airline said the Denpasar-Kuala Lumpur and Denpasar-Taipei routes had been cut from four times to three times weekly.

Other cut services include Dhahran (from twice to once per week), Jakarta-Denpasar (from 81 times to 66 times per week) and Denpasar-Jakarta (from 92 times to 69 times per week).

The Surabaya-Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route had been cut and changed from four times per week to three times, and only linked Surabaya and Kuala Lumpur, the air carrier said.

Gradually, Garuda would increase domestic services from Jakarta to Yogyakarta to six times weekly, and Surakarta and Palembang which would each have seven flights per week. (icn)