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By APD Writer Maverick
JAKARTA, July 25 (APD) – Indonesian airlines expanded their international flights service, linking cities in Indonesia’s western and central regions to several cities in China and India amid growing number visitor arrivals from the two nations to Indonesia.
The new international flight services to China’s cities of Kunming and Chongqing is served by Citilink, the budget subsidiary of state-run airline Garuda Indonesia.
The airlines provides 13 chartered direct flights from the Chinese two cities to Tanjung Pinang, one of Indonesia’s gate to access destinations in western region, scheduled from July 22 to August 21.
Tanjung Pinang is the capital of Indonesia’s Riau Island province whose airport serves visitors intending to spend holidays in nearby resort island of Bintan.
Citilink Charter Business and Operation Senior Manager Teddy Rezadiansyah said the direct charter flights were aimed at initiating direct access to Tanjung Pinang from the China’s highly potential two cities.
“The interests to visit Bintan among Chinese visitors have been growing recently. Through this chartered flights, Bintan and Tanjung Pinang would earn more popularity in international tourism market, particularly from China” Teddy said in a statement on Monday.
He added that the chartered direct flights serving Kunming and Chongqing to Tanjung Pinang would be served by Citilink’s Airbus A 320 planes.
Meanwhile, serving a new route linking Bali province’s capital of Denpasar to Indian city of Chennai, Batik Air provides scheduled full service flight which commenced on Sunday.
The flight linking Denpasar to Chennai is available once per day at present with stopover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Andy Saladin, Public Relations Manager of Batik Air’s parent firm, Lion Air Group, said.
“This flight provides more options for the customers to fly between the two destinations. The new route is highly expected to boost arrivals of Indian visitors to Indonesia,” Andy said.
Should the demand grow higher, Andy added that Batik Air planned to expand more flight frequency, services to more Indian cities in the future.
Batik Air officially began its full-service operation in 2013, now is served by 49 planes from the types of Boeing 737-800/900ER and Airbus A 320 CEO.
Chinese visitors apparently contributed the most at 15.8 percent in Indonesia’s foreign visitor arrivals in April this year, followed by the ones from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and India.
Indonesia expects to receive 550,000 Indian visitors this year, higher than over 376,000 and 271,000 ones in 2016 and 2015 respectively.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
