JAKARTA. National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia expects a surge in passengers from China, Asia’s largest economy, after the opening of the airline’s third sales office in Beijing on Thursday. “Our new office in Beijing has just opened today and we put a strong Indonesian atmosphere in the office to attract more passengers,” Garuda’s senior public relations manager Ikhsan Rosan said. Since the company first entered the Chinese market in 2002 with flights from Jakarta to Guangzhou, it has expanded its service to five flights per week on the Jakarta-Beijing route and to seven flights per week on the Jakarta-Guangzhou and Jakarta-Shanghai routes each, as of today. Garuda aims to expand its Jakarta-Beijing service to daily, Ikhsan said. Before opening offices in Beijing, Garuda’s sales offices were only in Shanghai and Canton. According to the company’s data, Garuda Indonesia transported nearly 235,000 passengers on the routes between Indonesia and China throughout last year, a 11.9 percent increase compared to the some 210,000 passengers it carried in 2010. In addition, the opening of the third sales office was part of Garuda’s plan to open new routes connecting Indonesian and Chinese cities. “Our company is currently studying China’s new tourism destinations Chengdu and Chongqing,” the manager at the Beijing sales office, Asa Perkasa, said as quoted by state news agency Antara. He said that this plan was also in line with the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry’s target to bring 1 million tourists from China to Indonesia after both parties signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on tourism and promotional activities on February in Jakarta. According to the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, the number of tourists from China increased at a double-digit growth rate for the past several years due to strong economic performance in both countries. For instance, the number of Chinese tourists rose from 421,000 in 2010 to 520,000 in 2011. In February 2012 alone, tourists from China who visited Indonesia reached 51,129 people. The number of Garuda’s total passengers reached 17 million in 2011, a 36 percent increase from 12.5 million in 2010. The number of passengers is projected to increase by 29.41 percent to 22 million passengers this year. Throughout last year, Garuda flew 13.9 million passengers on our domestic routes and 3.2 million international passengers. It saw a 39.06 percent increase in revenue to Rp 27.16 trillion (US$2.96 billion) and its operating income surge to Rp 1.01 trillion after suffering Rp 67.16 billion in operating losses in 2010. The airline will launch a Jakarta–Taipei route and a Denpasar–Tokyo via Haneda Airport in May and April, flying Boeing B737-800 Next Generation (NG) and Airbus A330-200 aircraft, respectively. (nfo/The Jakarta Post)
Garuda aims for more passengers from China
JAKARTA. National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia expects a surge in passengers from China, Asia’s largest economy, after the opening of the airline’s third sales office in Beijing on Thursday. “Our new office in Beijing has just opened today and we put a strong Indonesian atmosphere in the office to attract more passengers,” Garuda’s senior public relations manager Ikhsan Rosan said. Since the company first entered the Chinese market in 2002 with flights from Jakarta to Guangzhou, it has expanded its service to five flights per week on the Jakarta-Beijing route and to seven flights per week on the Jakarta-Guangzhou and Jakarta-Shanghai routes each, as of today. Garuda aims to expand its Jakarta-Beijing service to daily, Ikhsan said. Before opening offices in Beijing, Garuda’s sales offices were only in Shanghai and Canton. According to the company’s data, Garuda Indonesia transported nearly 235,000 passengers on the routes between Indonesia and China throughout last year, a 11.9 percent increase compared to the some 210,000 passengers it carried in 2010. In addition, the opening of the third sales office was part of Garuda’s plan to open new routes connecting Indonesian and Chinese cities. “Our company is currently studying China’s new tourism destinations Chengdu and Chongqing,” the manager at the Beijing sales office, Asa Perkasa, said as quoted by state news agency Antara. He said that this plan was also in line with the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry’s target to bring 1 million tourists from China to Indonesia after both parties signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on tourism and promotional activities on February in Jakarta. According to the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, the number of tourists from China increased at a double-digit growth rate for the past several years due to strong economic performance in both countries. For instance, the number of Chinese tourists rose from 421,000 in 2010 to 520,000 in 2011. In February 2012 alone, tourists from China who visited Indonesia reached 51,129 people. The number of Garuda’s total passengers reached 17 million in 2011, a 36 percent increase from 12.5 million in 2010. The number of passengers is projected to increase by 29.41 percent to 22 million passengers this year. Throughout last year, Garuda flew 13.9 million passengers on our domestic routes and 3.2 million international passengers. It saw a 39.06 percent increase in revenue to Rp 27.16 trillion (US$2.96 billion) and its operating income surge to Rp 1.01 trillion after suffering Rp 67.16 billion in operating losses in 2010. The airline will launch a Jakarta–Taipei route and a Denpasar–Tokyo via Haneda Airport in May and April, flying Boeing B737-800 Next Generation (NG) and Airbus A330-200 aircraft, respectively. (nfo/The Jakarta Post)