Garuda sets extra flights

Garuda sets extra flights

JAKARTA (JP): The country's air carrier Garuda Indonesia announced over the weekend that it will operate extra flights to cope with the expected travel boom during the upcoming holidays of Idul Fitri and the coinciding New Chinese Lunar Year.

Garuda plans to offer 113 additional flights with 21,081 seats to 14 destinations between Feb. 16 and Feb. 25.

The additional services during the Idul Fitri holiday, between Feb. 20 and Feb. 21, will include 74 flights with 11,644 seats between Jakarta and ten cities -- Medan (North Sumatra), Batam (Riau), Semarang (Central Java), Yogyakarta, Surakarta (Central Java), Pontianak (West Kalimantan), Ujungpandang (South Sulawesi), Denpasar (Bali), Perth (Australia) and Singapore.

Meanwhile, the additional services for the New Chinese Lunar Year, which falls on Feb. 19, will include 39 flights with 9,437 seats between Jakarta and four cities. The additional flights will serve the routes of Jakarta-Denpasar (four times), Denpasar- Jakarta (three times), Medan-Singapore and Singapore-Medan (both seven times), Jakarta-Singapore (five times), Singapore-Jakarta (four times), Denpasar-Singapore (four times) and Singapore- Denpasar (five times).

Garuda's subsidiary, Merpati Nusantara Airlines, is also considering additional services a week before and a week after the Idul Fitri holiday in 13 major domestic routes, including Jakarta-Denpasar, Surabaya-Denpasar, Surabaya-Ampenan (Lombok), Pekanbaru-Batam and Batam-Padang (West Sumatra). (icn)