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)