Garuda expands no-smoking flights

JAKARTA (JP): Garuda Indonesia has declared four more domestic flights smoke-free as of yesterday.

Services between Jakarta and Surabaya, Jakarta and Balikpapan, Jakarta and Batam, Jakarta and Denpasar are now no-smoking flights as the flag carrier expands its anti-smoking campaign to cover flights of up to two hours.

"The policy was imposed by Garuda Indonesia following its observation that more and more people are requesting seats in the non-smoking section," the airline's public relations office announced on Saturday.

Garuda first introduced its no-smoking services in June last year to cover flights of less than one hour duration. They are the routes between Jakarta and Yogyakarta, Jakarta and Surakarta (Solo) and Denpasar and Yogyakarta.

The airline has passed most of its domestic service flights over to its sister company, Merpati Nusantara Airlines, as it concentrates more on international routes.

But it retains some of the lucrative routes, such as flights to and from Medan, Batam, Banda Aceh, Yogyakarta, Solo, Surabaya, Denpasar, Ujungpandang, Manado, Biak, Jayapura, Balikpapan and Jakarta. (emb)