"We are trying to accelerate the plan to be realized in August. The flight will be available thrice a week," Arif said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia, will launch its Jakarta - Moscow direct flight route A330-200 aircraft, which is expected to be operational in August this year.

The inaugural flight plan was established in a memorandum of understanding signed by a representative of the Indonesia Russia Business Council, Mikhail Kuritsyn, and the Director of Garuda Indonesia, Arif Wibowo, in the presence of Russian Ambassador to Indonesia, Mikhail Galuzyn, and Indonesian Ambassador to Russia, Wahid Supriyadi, here on Tuesday (Feb 14).

"We are trying to accelerate the plan to be realized in August. The flight will be available thrice a week," Arif said.

He added that since the tourist traffic between the two countries continues to increase, the direct flight plan is expected to support Russias efforts to increase tourist arrivals from Indonesia to more than 100 thousand in 2017.

The number of Russian tourist arrivals in Indonesia in the first half of 2016 increased by 14 percent, while the number of Indonesians visiting Russia was about 14 thousand in 2015.

Arif stated that the launch of the new flight route marks the beginning of a series of international flight network expansion programs by Garuda Indonesia in 2017.

In addition to Moscow, Garuda Indonesia will also launch a flight from Jakarta to Los Angeles (USA) via Tokyo, Japan, by mid-2017.

Meanwhile, Galuzyn noted that the direct flight would further boost the economy and tourism sectors of the two countries.

"The direct flight has become one of our main priorities in the effort to enhance the number of tourists visiting Russia," he asserted.

We are optimistic that the new plan will open a positive opportunity not only for the tourism sector but also for the economic, social, and cultural sectors.

In 2014, Garuda Indonesia officially joined the SkyTeam global airline alliance, in which the Russian airlines Aeroflot is also a member.

Through the SkyTeam airline alliance network, all passengers can enjoy the Garuda Indonesia flight network services to more than 1,062 destinations around the world in 177 countries with 17,343 daily flights.

SkyTeam airline network services currently serve more than 655 million passengers every year.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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