Garuda suspends Europe service

Asip A. Hasani, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

The country's flagship carrier Garuda Indonesia will temporarily suspend its service from the tourist island of Bali to Frankfurt and London due to a sharp decline in the number of passengers using the service, according to a company executive.

Garuda vice president for market planning and development Marco Umbas said on Monday that the airline would close the route for five months starting Feb. 5 until June this year.

He admitted that currently the company could no longer sustain the service as passenger volume was too low.

"We can't maintain a business which causes financial loses. The flights are no longer profitable as the income from the flights can't cover direct operating costs," Marco told reporters on the sidelines of the 2002 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Tourism Forum (ATF) in Yogyakarta.

He said, however, that Garuda would resume the flights in early July as it was expected that more European tourists would wish to fly to Bali at that time.

He explained that flights to Europe were no longer profitable following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Elsewhere, Marco said that Garuda was planning to raise its flight frequency on the more promising China route.

Although Bali is the most popular tourist destination in Indonesia, it has also borne the brunt of the Sept. 11 attacks as many potential visitors avoid traveling to Muslim countries.

Only 1.3 million foreigners visited Bali in 2001, a 3 percent decline on 2000 figures, according to the Bali Tourism Office.

Arrivals from the U.S. and Europe showed the largest declines.

Meanwhile, head of the country's tourism and cultural board Setyanto P. Santoso said that the government would discuss further the possibility of providing a subsidy for Garuda in order to maintain the service to Frankfurt and London.

Setyanto, however, said that prior to granting the subsidy, the government would first audit the management of Garuda.

The decision to suspend the service to two major European cities has also sparked criticism from travel agencies as Garuda is seen as an important air carrier for transporting European tourists to Indonesia.