Whilst many airlines across the world are making cutbacks Garuda Indonesia have confirmed they are to press ahead with their ambitious business development plans which will, by mid 2009, will see the airline take delivery of 14 new Boeing 737 NGs (New Generation) jets.
These will allow the opening of no less than 20 new routes during the coming twelve months. The planned new routes are as follows:
Jakarta - Tanjungkarang (Lampung), Jakarta - Malang (East Java), Jakarta - Makassar - Kendari (Southeast Sulawesi), Jakarta - Makassar - Gorontalo, Jakarta - Makassar - Sorong (Papua), Jakarta - Makassar - Ambon, Jakarta - Makassar - Palu (Central Sulawesi), Jakarta - Jambi (Jambi), Jakarta - Manado - Ternate (Southeast Maluku), Jakarta - Balikpapan - Tarakan, Jakarta - Pangkal Pinang, Denpasar - Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara), Denpasar - Kupang (East Nusa Tenggara), Denpasar - Adelaide (Australia), Denpasar - Hongkong, Surabaya - Hongkong, Jakarta - Shanghai (China) - Denpasar - Jakarta and Yogyakarta - Singapore.
Some of the routes are ‘new services’, however, others are routes previously flown and will be reinstated in stages, beginning this month.
On the Yogyakarta - Singapore route, Garuda Indonesia commenced services on December 16, 2008 operating three times a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Meanwhile, with the big increase in Chinese tourism to Indonesia, Garuda has recently changed the routing of it’s Shanghai - Jakarta service to Shanghai - Denpasar - Jakarta thus enabling travellers from China to fly direct to Denpasar, Bali. Other routes, such as domestic flights from Jakarta - Tanjungkarang, Jakarta - Malang, and Jakarta - Makassar - Kendari and international flights from Surabaya to Hong Kong and Denpasar to Hong Kong will be operated on a daily basis from mid January 2009.
Garuda Indonesia President & CEO, Emirsyah Satar explained that by 2013 Garuda Indonesia’s aircraft fleet is expected grow to a total of 128 aircraft, thanks to new fleet additions comprising 50 Boeing737NGs and 10 Boeing 777-300ERs, these new aircraft along with ongoing aircraft refurbishment will gradually replace old aircraft with more sophisticated and efficient ones. At present, Garuda Indonesia operates 54 modern jet aircraft, consisting of three wide body Boeing 747-400 aircraft, six Airbus A330s, and six Boeing 737 NGs, as well as 39 narrow body Boeing 737 aircraft. "Backed by 128 aircraft, in 2013 Garuda Indonesia will make a "quantum leap" into the future", Emirsyah further added.
During the recent Christmas and New Year holiday period Garuda Indonesia increased it seating capacity by over 29,000 seats to many destinations across it’s network with flights between Jakarta-Denpasar, Jakarta-Hong Kong and Jakarta Makassar getting over 23,00 of those extra seats between them. Across the period covering 22 Dec and 05 January the load factor is expected to average 90%.