Garuda operates extra flights

Garuda operates extra flights

JAKARTA (JP): National air carrier Garuda Indonesia announced
yesterday that it would operate extra flights to cope with an
expected travel boom during the upcoming holiday of Idul Fitri.

Head of the company's Surabaya branch Iman Suntoro said Garuda
planned to offer additional flights linking Surabaya and Jakarta
using DC-10 aircraft, with 248 seats, from Jan. 24 to Jan. 28 and
Feb. 1 to Feb. 25.

"But if regular flights can meet demand, we will not operate
the addition flights," he said, declining to give the total
number of extra flights.

Idul Fitri will fall on Jan. 30 and Jan. 31, but many
companies are closed for at least a week during the holiday.

Iman said that before Jan. 5, Garuda flew the Surabaya-Jakarta
route 8 to 10 times a day.

The company currently serves the route 12 times a day using
Boeing 737-500 aircraft.

With the additional flights, Garuda provided a capacity of
1,664 seats on the Surabaya-Jakarta route from its previous
capacity of 1,480 seats, he said.

"The addition in regular flights has been planned since early
last year. Garuda even plans to serve the route 14 times a day
later this year," he said. (gis)