panorama destination

panorama destination

Soekarno-Hatta Terminal 3 Ultimate to begin operating mid this year
02 June 2016 | Written by Chris Alexander

Ready to serve 25 million passengers by 2017

On January 12 this year, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia commenced scheduled direct flights from Denpasar-Bali to Shanghai-China. Aimed at expanding the airline’s market in China, Garuda Indonesia’s latest addition offers an alternative destination in China to its scheduled Denpasar-Beijing and Denpasar-Guangzhou flights.

Speaking in Denpasar on Wednesday, January 13, Garuda Indonesia Commercial Director, Mr. Handayani said that China is one of the areas of focus in the development of the airline’s international network. The potential of Chinese tourists traveling to destinations worldwide could reach 100 million people.

“The number of Chinese tourists visiting Indonesia is increasing every year while the number of tourists visiting China in 2015 in the January to August period increased by almost 25 percent over the previous year. Furthermore, Chinese tourists accounted for the most visits to Bali after Australia. Naturally, with this potential, China is a potential market for Garuda,” said Mr. Handayani.

Flying A330-300 aircraft with a passenger capacity of 360 economy class seats, Garuda Indonesia serves Denpasar-Shanghai return flights three times a week, on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Flight GA 858 departs Denpasar at 16:15 hrs and arrives in Shanghai at 23:20 hrs local time. Meanwhile, GA 859 departs Shanghai at 01:00 hrs and arrives in Denpasar at 08:35 hrs.

“The opening of our new routes is expected to contribute to the growth of tourism and help to achieve the government’s target of 12 million foreign tourists in 2016 and 20 million tourists by the year 2020. Through Denpasar as a Garuda Indonesia hub, the traveler can then access domestic destinations outside Bali, such as Lombok, Makassar, Manado, Labuan Bajo, Yogyakarta and other destinations,” added Mr. Handayani.

With the addition of the new Denpasar-Shanghai route, Garuda Indonesia now provides ten direct flights per week to and from Shanghai from Denpasar and Jakarta. Garuda currently operates a total of 26 scheduled flights from Denpasar and Jakarta to Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.

Passengers on all Garuda Indonesia flights are served with the award-winning “Garuda Indonesia Experience”, an excellence in pre-, in- and post-flight services concept which highlights Indonesia’s warm hospitality and richly diverse culture. For flights to destinations in China, Garuda Indonesia cabin crews include Chinese nationals to enable passengers to communicate when they require services or assistance during the flight.

Besides the airline’s scheduled flights to China, Garuda Indonesia’s development of the Chinese market will also be carried out by implementing chartered flights from various cities in China, such as Chengdu, Chong Qin, Hefei, Kunming, Ningbo, Zhengzhou, Shenyang, Jinan, Tianjin, Taiyuan and Xi’an from January to March 2016. Garuda Indonesia had previously implemented chartered flights from February to July 2015, from Chengdu, Chong Qin, Ningbo, Kunming, Junan, Harbin, Xi’an, Shenyang and Chengzhou to Denpasar and Manado.

In 2014, Garuda International achieved Skytrax’s 5-star airline rating as one of the world’s 10 best airlines, earned the prestigious Skytrax award for “World’s Best Cabin Crew” in 2014 and 2015, and “The World’s Best Economy Class” award in 2013, also from Skytrax. Garuda Indonesia is a member of SkyTeam, the 20-member global airline alliance that provides access to an extensive global network with over 16,320 daily flights to 1,052 destinations in 177 countries. Garuda Indonesia carries 25 million passengers per year.