Garuda reopens flights to some Asian cities

Garuda reopens flights to some Asian cities

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Flag carrier Garuda has resumed or brought back to normal
flights on a number of routes in Asia that had been suspended or
had their frequencies reduced following the recent outbreak of
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The carrier made the move just in time for the summer holidays
and amid regional euphoria over the lifting of the World Health
Organization's travel advisories to some of the worst-affected
SARS areas.

The reopened routes are Surabaya-Singapore and Denpasar-
Singapore (both once a week), Medan-Singapore (4 times a week),
Denpasar-Osaka (twice a week), Jakarta-Shanghai (twice a week),
Jakarta-Guangzhou (three times a week), and Denpasar-Nagoya
(twice a week).

Routes where flight frequencies have been brought back to
normal are Jakarta-Singapore (7 times a week), Jakarta-Hong Kong
(6 times a week), Denpasar-Jakarta-Tokyo (7 times a week),
Denpasar-Osaka (2 times a week), and Denpasar-Seoul (3 times a
week).

Garuda has also opened a new route between Surabaya and Kuala
Lumpur, with three flights a week being scheduled.

Asian destinations are important markets for Garuda. The
Japanese head the top of the list of foreign travelers to
Indonesia, while China, to which Garuda has opened new routes, is
considered another major potential market for the Indonesian
tourism industry.

The flag-carrier, like most other carriers in the world,
suffered a heavy blow thanks to the outbreak of SARS at a time
when the airline industry had yet recover from the Sept 11, 2001,
terrorist attack on the U.S., the Oct. 12 Bali bombings last year
and the war in Iraq earlier this year.

At the peak of the SARS epidemic, Garuda's daily load factor
to and from the countries affected by the disease -- Singapore,
Hong Kong, China and Vietnam -- dropped to 60 percent from 80
percent prior to the outbreak of disease.

With 80 percent of its total flights being international, the
situation had a major impact on Garuda's finances, and forced the
company to put on hold its plan to lease 12 new aircraft.

The latest data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows
that foreign tourist arrivals in May plunged 38.59 percent to
222,486 compared to the same period last year.

The BPS also said that the number of international passengers
had declined by 18.84 percent to 1.58 million from the previous
year.