Indonesia tourism determined to expand air connectivity, outreach with India

After recording strong growth in tourist arrivals from the Indian market in the first eight months of 2018, Indonesia is now stepping up efforts to improve air connectivity between the two countries.

“We are working to renew the air services agreement between the two countries to have more flights. The negotiation for renewing air service agreement will begin this year. We are pushing for direct flights between New Delhi-Jakarta sector,” Sidharto Suryodipuro, Indonesian ambassador to India, said during the New Delhi leg of a sales mission organised by the Ministry of Tourism of Indonesia.

The ambassador shared that one major Indian private airline and another Indonesian carrier are looking to mount direct flights between the two countries. Presently, no Indian airline flies directly to Indonesia, although two Indonesian carriers operate flights to India.

Garuda Indonesia began its first direct flight between India and Indonesia, connecting Mumbai and Jakarta, in December 2016. The Indonesian flag carrier introduced thrice-weekly flights on the Denpasar-Mumbai route earlier this year, and is expected to add one more weekly flight on the sector this month.

Apart from Garuda Indonesia, Batik Airways is operating flights from Chennai to Medan and Chennai to Denpasar.

“As of last year, all 27 fights per week entitled to Indonesian carriers were utilised but Indonesia AirAsia stopped flying to India post the volcanic eruption in Bali. This left 10 slots per week vacant, so now we are looking at filling those vacant slots before extending our air service agreement with India to add more flights,” said Sidharto.

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