Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk will maintain five international routes by 2022. These routes, such as Hong Kong, Sydney, Australia, Narita, Japan, Seoul, South Korea, and China.
President Director of Garuda Indonesia Irfan Setiaputra said the five routes were maintained because they still provide benefits. Meanwhile, other international routes must be closed for the sake of company efficiency.
“While we have closed a lot of international (routes) we have closed, while the ones we are still operating or flying are Hong Kong, Sydney, Narita, Seoul, China,” said Irfan in an online presentation of the third quarter of 2021 performance, Monday (20/20). /12).
Then, this national airline also maintains the Jeddah route, Saudi Arabia. However, Jeddah did not enter the international route because it was only devoted to Umrah.
Even so, Garuda Indonesia has not reopened flights to Jeddah at this time. The reason is, the Ministry of Religion is still delaying the departure of Umrah until next year.
The route to Jeddah, said Irfan, will be reopened when there is confirmation from the government. In addition, Umrah flights will also be opened when the congregation and agents have met the requirements set by the government.
“I deliberately did not include Jeddah because it is closely related to Umrah. Currently, because Umrah has not been opened, the requirements are still quite heavy, we decided not to fly first,” explained Irfan.
On the other hand, Garuda Indonesia will close a number of domestic routes. One of them is Bandung-Denpasar. Irfan did not explain in detail the list of flights that would be closed by the state-owned airline.
“Experience also teaches that the most appropriate approach is to operate aircraft on profitable routes, slowly opening other routes and increasing the frequency,” concluded Irfan.
(well/aud)
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