New Delhi/ Chandigarh: Indonesian national airline Garuda plans to start direct flight between Jakarta to Mumbai and Chennai by middle of this year, thus reviving its India service after more than a decade, according to Lt. General (retired) Andi M Ghalib, the Southeast Asian nationa’s ambassador to India.
Currently, passengers to Indonesia have to fly via Singapore or Malaysia. The proposed service would strengthen trade and tourism ties between the two countries, Ghalib said. “Later on, Garuda will also start direct flights from Delhi and Kolkata,” he told Business Standard.
Ghalib was in the city to meet the chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana, besides businessmen from the two states. Garuda used to operate a Mumbai-Jakarta service till the late 1990s, when economic crisis forced the airline to cut its India service.
Elaborating on the future moves, Indonesian consul Leonard F Hutabarat said his country had two years ago received India’s approval to start the service. “The Indian aviation ministry had cleared it in 2010, but we couldn’t start operations due to non-availability of aircraft,” he recalled. “Now, we have received new aircraft. We are likely to deploy Airbus-320 for the direct flights.”
13/04/12 Vijay C Roy/Business Standard
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