Garuda resumes flights to Seoul after long halt
Garuda resumes flights to Seoul after long halt
JAKARTA (JP): State-owned airline Garuda Indonesia resumed on
Sunday flights from Jakarta to Seoul after a more than two-year
suspension of the route.
Company spokesman Pujobroto said in a statement on Sunday
Garuda had resumed its Jakarta-Seoul service following an
increase in passenger and cargo traffic between the two
countries, as well as the financial recovery the airline was
enjoying.
Garuda suspended the Jakarta-Seoul route in February 1998 at
the peak of the economic crisis, along with other 16
international routes to the United States, Taipei, Paris, Rome,
Zurich and Saigon, among others.
Pujobroto said that beginning on Sunday, Garuda would offer
direct flights from Jakarta to Seoul on Tuesdays, Thursdays and
Sundays. The aircraft will depart Jakarta at 10:30 p.m. and
arrive in Seoul at 7:05 a.m. local time.
Return flights from Seoul to Jakarta will be offered on
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, departing at 9:50 a.m. local
time and arriving at 2:50 p.m.
Garuda will increase the number of flights on the route to
four per week in December this year, with an additional flight
from Jakarta to Seoul on Fridays, and from Seoul to Jakarta on
Saturdays.
According to Pujobroto, Garuda will initially use wide-body
DC-10 aircraft to serve the Jakarta-Seoul route, but the aircraft
will be replaced with A-330 aircraft in April 2001.
Before Sunday, the route was served by Korean Airlines under a
code-sharing agreement with Garuda, with seven flights per week.
Under the agreement, Garuda sold passenger seats and cargo
space on the Korean Airlines flights.
Pujobroto said the number of air passengers from Korea to
Indonesia rose 34 percent in 1999, while the number of passengers
traveling from Indonesia to Korea increased 29 percent on the
year.
Most Seoul-Jakarta travelers are businesspeople, while the
majority of Jakarta-Seoul travelers are tourists, according to
Pujobroto.
He said the number of people traveling between the two
countries was projected to rise to 128,000 in 2001. He added that
this figure was expected to rise further to 132,000 in 2002 and
136,000 in 2003.
He said cargo traffic between the two countries had also shown
steady growth.
Air cargo from Seoul to Jakarta currently averages 216 tons
per month, or seven tons per day, while air cargo transported on
the Indonesia-South Korea-United States route averages 21 tons
per day, according to him. (jsk)