REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – Garuda Indonesia Airline will open a new flight route to Auckland, New Zealand. Executive Director of Garuda, Emirsyah Satar, and the Chairman of Auckland International Airport, Joan Withers, signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Jakarta.

Auckland airport becomes the first destination for Garuda in New Zealand. The flight to New Zealand before was through Singapore as transit airport. Satar welcomed this MoU as an effort to widen the network from New Zealand to cities in Asia and Europe through Jakarta and Bali.

“The new flight route is potential. They will help us in marketing so that when Garuda start the flight, we can succeed,” Satar said.

Garuda targets to serve the planned flight to Auckland in early 2013. It is planned to depart from Jakarta once a day by using Airbus A330. “If we can succeed in New Zealand, we can also connect to Latin America which is also a potential route,” he explained.

Meanwhile, General Manager of Aeronautical Commercial Auckland Airport, Glenn Wedlock, said the signing of MoU was an investment and a big step in developing Indonesian and New Zealand tourism. He said this MoU was a support for free trade area (FTA) signed by Indonesian and New Zealand last year. The agreement opens a big market for New Zealand products, such as beef and seafood.

Chief Executive Tourism of New Zealand, Kevin Bowler, said the flight to New Zealand could attract tourists in promising number. Though Indonesia is a small market, the number of tourists increases from time to time.

Earlier before, New Zealand airline, Air New Zealand, is planned to fly twice in a week to Bali started from June 2012. The data from Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) shows Indonesian tourists coming to New Zealand until February 2012 reach 11,824 tourists or increase 22.5 percent compared to previous year. 

Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika