Indonesia to open additional direct flights to China

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Indonesia's state-run airlines Garuda Indonesia is to launch more flights linking Bali to Zhengzhou and Xi'an later this month in a bid to tap more tourists from China, an airline official said.

The flights will link Bali to central Chinese city of Zhengzhou and Xi'an, in northwest China.

By opening more flights to China's two cities, the airline would add its existing services directly connecting Indonesia's resort island of Bali with several cities in China.

"The opening of the new routes was part of the firm's continuing efforts to maximize the potentialities from the highly promising Chinese tourism market," Garuda Indonesia official in charge of supervising international route development Sigit Muhartono said in a recent statement.

The arrival of tourists from China to Indonesia has shown expanding trend in the last few years with their apparent domination was seen in Bali, brushed aside counties which previously dominated foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia's exotic island.

With annual outbound tourist potentialities over 120 million, Sigit said China has become an increasingly important market for international globally, including for Garuda Indonesia.

Indonesia's flag carrier airlines hold 35 percent market share of overall airlines serving Indonesia-China flights, he added.

The opening of additional Garuda Indonesia flights to China was part of the airline's contribution to recover foreign tourist arrival in Bali aftermath Bali's Mount Agung volcanic events.

"As situation in Bali has returned to normal, we are optimistic that the opening of new routes can serve as an important momentum to further expand international tourist visit to Bali," Sigit said.

Garuda would use Airbus A330 to serve upcoming flights from Denpasar to Zhengzhou and Xi'an. The Bali-Xian flight was scheduled to commence on Jan. 29, while the one serving Bali-Zhengzhou would commence a day later.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency