The national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, in a joint press conference with Tourism Australia, announced that it will increase seasonal flight frequencies on the Jakarta – Australia routes from 4 to 5 flights per week and Bali – Australia routes from 6 to 7 flights per week from May until October 2017. This comes on the back of strong visitor arrivals from Indonesia to Australia in 2016 and improved route performance supported by its successful partnership campaign with Tourism Australia.
Through the addition of the Australian frequency, Garuda Indonesia targets a growth rate of passengers in the market sector Australia to 650 thousand passengers in 2017. The additional flights will greatly improve convenience for passengers traveling from Indonesia to Australia, and vice versa, and are part of the airline’s effort to meet the growing appetite of Indonesian travelers for Australia.
The addition of these frequencies for each route of Australian sector will be adjusted to market demand in the period of the holiday season, so the number of frequencies will be different in each period.
Garuda Indonesia’s CEO M.Arif Wibowo revealed that the addition flight frequencies of Australian sector, in line with the high demand for the Australian market, as well as to accommodate the increase in traffic between Indonesia and Australia. In 2016, Garuda Indonesia successfully increase passenger growth rate of Indonesia to Australia by 17% compared to the same period in 2015.
“The enhancement of our services to Australia will offer our customers a wider choice of flight schedules and ultimately greater travel convenience to Australia. We also want to thank our customers for their trust in flying Garuda Indonesia, and to Tourism Australia for its continuous support for Garuda Indonesia through our partnership campaign. We hope this successful partnership between Tourism Australia and Garuda Indonesia will continue in the upcoming years,” said Arif.
Currently, Garuda Indonesia serves six routes in three cities in Australia from both its main hubs in Jakarta and Denpasar, namely Jakarta – Sydney, Denpasar – Sydney, Jakarta – Melbourne, Denpasar – Melbourne, Jakarta – Perth, and Denpasar – Perth.
Australia’s Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, The Hon Steven Ciobo MP, who is currently in Indonesia leading a high level delegation for the Indonesia Australia Business Week from March 6 to 10, expressed his excitement over Garuda Indonesia’s move and the increased interest among Indonesian tourists to visit Australia.
“Indonesia is one of Australia’s fastest-growing markets for international visitors and is Australia’s 12th largest market for international visitor arrivals. Indonesia has the potential to be worth over $1 billion in overnight visitation by 2020 and we hope that today’s announcement by Garuda Indonesia will help us achieve that. Tourism Australia is the first external national tourism organization to form a strategic partnership with Garuda, a relationship that I am sure will continue to flourish. On behalf of Tourism Australia, we look forward to the joint campaign promoting the increased services across the airlines’ key gateways of Sydney, Melbourne and Perth,” said Minister Ciobo.
Indonesia is Australia’s 12th largest inbound market for visitor arrivals, with a total of 174,400 arrivals recorded in 2016, an increase of 13.8%, year-on-year. In December 2016 alone, the total number of arrivals from Indonesia was 26,600, a year-on-year increase of 43.8%. For the year ending September 2016, Indonesians spent $0.7 billion in Australia, an increase of 19 per cent year on year.
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