Garuda adds Osaka to its Japanese service

JAKARTA (JP): Garuda Indonesia, the national air carrier, starts serving the Jakarta-Denpasar-Osaka route three times a week today as part of its strategy to boost the number of Japanese tourists.

Totok Sugiarto, head of Garuda's marketing division, told reporters here yesterday that the new route, which will be served with MD-11 aircraft, will increase the airline's number of flights to Japan from 15 to 18 a week.

He said that Garuda's existing Japanese service, consisting of routes to Tokyo, Nagoya and Fukuoka, last year contributed 24 percent of its total number of foreign passengers, or 2,687,436.

"We expect that the Osaka route will increase the contribution to about 26 percent of the total number of foreign passengers," Totok said.

He also said that during the January-June period, the number of Garuda's foreign passengers reached 1,401,574, including 252,406 coming from Japan and South Korea.

Garuda Indonesia last year generated Rp 264.13 billion (US$121.8 million) in profit, of which 70 percent came from international services.

Totok also said that Garuda plans to adopt a "floating price" policy for the Osaka route, in which the airline will closely follow the market. (hdj)