REPORT – BALI – PATA TRAVEL MART: The opening of the European market is priority for Garuda Indonesia which currently does not operate flights in Europe after European Union’s ban…
REPORT – BALI – PATA TRAVEL MART: The opening of the European market is priority for Garuda Indonesia which currently does not operate flights in Europe after European Union’s ban for security reasons even though Indonesia welcomes 730,000 tourists from Europe every year.
Amsterdam with connection to one of the cities in the Middle East will be the first destination of Garuda as Mr. Emirsyah Satar, President of Garuda Indonesia announced at a press conference that took place during PATA Travel Mart’s first day in Bali.
Unknown remains though the time that Garuda will start commencing these flights as the carrier has no long-haul aircrafts of medium capacity.
According to Mr. Satar, the carrier seeks for a new aircraft either from Airbus or from Boeing with capacity no more of 260 seats. The fleet’s renewal will begin in 2009 and will include such type of aircrafts.
With the opening of the European market Garuda wants to mainly attract the middle and upper class of business travelers. In order Garuda to be removed from EU’s black list the carrier aims to get IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) accreditation to secure that its aircrafts respond to internationally safety regulations.
It is worth to mention that Garuda Indonesia managed to present revenues of 148 billion rupees during the first half of 2007 while the same period in 2006 has losses of 361 million rupees resulting in a 141% increase in revenues.
Finally, the company aims to enter in one of the global airline alliances while a cooperation with the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism has already began for the use of its offices around the world as tourism offices for the better promotion of the country internationally.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
