Garuda Indonesia on Tuesday evening started a direct service linking Jakarta and Tokyo, hoping to get more passengers visiting Japan.“We hope the new route will attract businessmen and tourists to travel with Garuda, since Japan Airlines has abandoned the route because it is facing financial problems,” Garuda president director Emirsyah Satar said Tuesday. Emirsyah said passengers would prefer to fly Garuda to Tokyo because they did not have to transit in Bali.

The first direct flight to Tokyo had a load factor of 90 percent, with most seats for next month also sold 85 to 95 percent full.

Garuda uses its Airbus A330-200 for the flight (GA 884) with 222 seats in a two-class configuration of 36 executive class seats and 186 in economy. — JP

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