Garuda plans second hub

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

National airline PT Garuda Indonesia was preparing a second hub in Denpasar, Bali for its international flights, in addition to its existing Jakarta hub focused on domestic destinations, a senior executive said.

Garuda's director of operations Rudy A. Hardono said that the Denpasar hub was developed for international flights because for several years now foreigners visiting Indonesia had been reluctant to disembark in Jakarta due to security reasons.

"In catering to that trend, Garuda provides direct international flights to Denpasar, and to make it more efficient we have also made Denpasar our international hub," he said.

Rudy said that, from the Denpasar hub, Garuda would service 21 international routes from Japan, Australia, and Europe, and that the hub would eventually become the base for around 200 cabin crew.

"If we don't make Denpasar our hub, we have to transport cabin crew to and from Jakarta, which is quite expensive," he said.

A hub is an airline's center of activity, from where the airline centralizes its services before flying to other destinations.

Separately, Garuda's president Abdulgani said that the airline would reopen two more routes next month in a bid to gradually open up the 16 international routes closed during the economic crisis in 1998.

He said that flights to Guangzhou, China would be reintroduced on Dec. 8, with flights to Taipei to return on Dec. 10. Both flights would depart from Denpasar.

Garuda's vice president for revenue management Agus Priyanto said that Garuda was focusing on its domestic and Asia-Pacific routes, and therefore had focused on reopening routes within the region.

Garuda has reopened flights to Singapore from Surabaya, Seoul from Jakarta, and Fukuoka from Denpasar.

As yet, it has no plans to reopen further routes.