Garuda reopens Fukuoka-Denpasar direct route

Garuda reopens Fukuoka-Denpasar direct route

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has reopened its direct
route between Fukuoka and Denpasar -- which was closed in
November 2002 -- in order to fight for a 20 percent market share
of Japanese passengers this year.

Garuda's vice president for networking, Simon Pulungan, said
at a press conference to announce the airlines' inaugural flight
that the main reason for reopening the route was to challenge the
domination of Singapore Airlines (SQ), Cathay Pacific (CX) and
Japan Airlines (JAL).

"If SQ does not increase its flights, we have an opportunity
to challenge its domination for the Japan-Indonesia route. SQ
does not have direct flights between Indonesia and Japan, but it
has connections with the Singapore hub," he said over the
weekend.

Pulungan said Cathay Pacific also flew to Indonesia from
Japan, but with stop overs in Hong Kong. JAL is the only direct
competitor to Garuda as it has direct flights to Indonesia from
two Japanese cities -- Tokyo and Osaka.

To compete with JAL as the only other airline with direct
flights from Japan to Indonesia, Garuda is offering tour
packages, he added.

"The tour packages are suited to the schedule of Garuda
flights. Actually, a market still exists and automatically will
be shared. In the future, the competition will be mostly related
to the tour packages offered by each airline," said the general
manager of Garuda for Nagoya and Osaka, Marco Umbas.

Besides reopening the Fukuoka-Denpasar route, with flights
every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, Garuda has also increased its
flight frequency between Osaka and Denpasar to five times from
three times a week.

By resuming flights to Fukuoka and increasing flight frequency
to Osaka, Garuda has increased its flights to Japan to 18 times a
week. The airline flies to Tokyo seven times a week and to Osaka
five times a week.

Indonesia's consul general in Osaka, Pitono Purnomo, said
Japan had potential as a tourist market for Indonesia. According
to the Japanese statistics agency, Japanese spent 70 percent of
their leisure time for traveling domestically and internationally
in 2001.

In 2004, almost 17 million Japanese traveled outside their
country. This number was likely to grow by three million in 2007,
he said.

Unfortunately, Pitono said, Indonesia could grab only 4
percent of Japanese tourists while European countries could grab
30 percent, the United States 23 percent, China 17 percent, South
Korea 13 percent and Thailand 8 percent.

"We must also remember that the Japanese are known for their
tight schedules. They don't like to waste time on traveling time.
Garuda has to be aware of this," he said.

The direct route will enable Garuda to reach Japan in six
hours. It takes nine hours with Singapore Airlines and Cathay
Pacific including transiting in Singapore or Hong Kong
respectively.

According to Pulungan, Garuda currently flies Airbus 330 there
with a capacity of 293 seats and Boeing 747-400 with a capacity
of 405 seats.