Garuda Indonesia to focus on Asian market

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia plans to further develop its market in Asia this year, with flights to and from China particularly in mind, amid tougher global competition.

"We will be concentrating on the Asian market for now. As for other markets, like the European market, we will simply maintain cooperation with other airlines," said marketing director Bachrul Hakim, as quoted by Antara, during last week's promotional tour to Beijing.

Aside from the sales mission to China's capital, Garuda also marked its expansion in the Asian market by opening two new flights on Sunday between Singapore and local cities Yogyakarta, Padang and Pekanbaru.

Using Boeing's 110-seater B373-300 aircraft, Garuda will open direct flights between Singapore and Yogyakarta three times a week, while flights between the city-state and Padang -- with a stopover in Pekanbaru -- will be available four times a week.

"Later on, we will also work on our market in India, the Philippines, and the Middle East," Bachrul said.

The Asian market has shown significant growth recently, thus encouraging the state-owned airline to focus its operations in the region.

Data from Garuda shows that the market had also contributed at least 30 percent of the company's revenue from international flights, and up to 18 percent of its total revenue last year.

For the China market, the data shows that the number of Garuda passengers flying to China had grown steadily by an average of 10 percent over the last five years, with a projected 12.93 million passengers for this year.

The number of passengers flying from China, meanwhile, was recorded at 131,624 last year, and is estimated to reach about 344,904 this year.

Bachrul urged the government to boost promotional efforts and ease immigration requirements to lure more Chinese citizens to visit Indonesia.

In comparison, Indonesia's neighboring countries, such as Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, have all managed to attract about one million Chinese tourists per year.

Garuda itself, Bachrul said, will continue to promote and improve its existing operations in China's four major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

In January, the airline reopened its thrice-weekly direct flight between Jakarta and Beijing, which was temporarily closed down due to the 1997 economic crisis.

It also opened new, twice-weekly direct flights between Jakarta, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Flights between Jakarta and the two cities were previously only three times a week, all with a stopover in Singapore.

As for its route between Jakarta and Hong Kong, Garuda will maintain the route's current six flights a week, of which three are direct flights and another three have a stopover in Singapore.

The flights to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong are all served using a 293-seater A330 airbus, while the flights to Guangzhou are served using 247-seater DC10s.

Garuda currently has a fleet of 62 airplanes of various types, serving a total of 30 domestic and 24 international destinations.

It projects a profit of Rp 500 billion ($58.8 million) this year, from its targeted revenue of Rp 12 trillion.

Last year, the airline managed to reap a profit of Rp 200 billion from Rp 8 trillion in revenue. The revenue obtained, however, was short of the targeted revenue of Rp 11 trillion.