The meeting, which took place at Garuda Indonesia Office, Jakarta, specifically addressed the new direct flight route from Jakarta to Moscow in the form of memorandum of understanding (MoU). The MoU was signed by Mikhail Kuritsyn, the representative of Indonesia Business Council of Russia and CEO & President Garuda Indonesia M. Arif Wibowo, witnessed by Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Mikhail Galuzyn and Indonesian Ambassador to Russia Wahid Supriyadi in Garuda Indonesia, Jakarta, Tuesday (14/2).
"We are trying to accelerate plans regarding the launch of direct flights to Moscow in August. We will fly three times a week using wide body aircraft Airbus A330-200," said Arif Wibowo.
In accordance with the potential increase in tourist traffic between the two countries, the direct flight services to Moscow is expected to improve Russian tourist visits up to 100 thousand tourists in 2017.Russian tourist arrivals to Indonesia in the first half of 2016 increased by 14 percent. In contrast, the number of Indonesian citizens visit to Russia is also quite large, in 2015 there were about 14,000 people.
Arif added, plans to open Jakarta - Moscow services in the mid-2017 marks a series of Garuda Indonesua international flight network expansion in 2017. In addition to Moscow, in the middle of this year, Garuda Indonesia will also launch Jakarta - Los Angeles via Tokyo.
Meanwhile, Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Mikhail Yurievich Galuzyn expected the direct flight from Indonesia and Russia will further strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, especially in economics and tourism sector. "Realization of the direct flight plan between Russia and Indonesia has become one of our main priorities in the effort to increase the numbers of tourists visit to Russia," said Galuzyn.
He expected potential tourists visit from Asia can be increase every year. We are optimistic with the direct connectivity between Jakarta - Moscow will provide a promising opportunity not only for the tourism sector, but economic, social, and cultural.
In line with its international flight network expansion program, Garuda Indonesia in 2014 officially joined the global airline alliance "SkyTeam", in which one of russian airline "Aeroflot" also become member of the alliance. Through synergies of the SkyTeam airline alliance network, currently all Garuda Indonesia's passengers can enjoy flight network services to more than 1062 destinations around the world, which is in 177 countries and 17.343 daily flights. SkyTeam airline network alliances currently serve more than 655 million passengers annually.
About Garuda Indonesia Group
Garuda Indonesia Group [IDX:GIAA] operates a total of 194 aircraft, consisting of ten (10) Boeing 777-300ER, twenty-five (25) Airbus A330-200/300, two (2) Boeing 747-400, seventy-six (76) Boeing 737-800NG, eighteen (18) Bombardier CRJ1000 NextGen, and fifteen (15) ATR72-600, with a 146 aircraft operated by Garuda Indonesia, and forty (40) Airbus A320 and eight (8) Boeing 737-300/500, or 48 aircraft operated by Citilink, with an average aircraft age of 4.6 years.
Concerning services performance, the management is implementing the "Excellent Services" program that requires sustainable service development. It has shown remarkable results with "The World's Best Cabin Staff" award received by Garuda Indonesia's cabin crew from Skytrax (an independent aviation rating institution in London) for the third consecutive time (a hat-trick) from 2014 to 2016.
In addition to the World's Best Cabin Staff award, Garuda Indonesia has maintained its reputation as a five-star airline, including being named; Top 5 World's Best Airlines in Asia, Top 10 World's Best First Class Airlines, Top 10 World's Best Economy Class Airlines, and The Most Loved Airline.
Aside from Skytrax, Garuda Indonesia also won the "Outstanding Food Service by a Carrier" award from Pax International Magazine, the Top 10 World's Most Favourite Airlines from TripAdvisor, Best Cabin Services by Smart Travel Asia, and Best First Class Sparkling Wine-Champagne from Business Traveller. For more information, please visit www.garuda-indonesia.com.
Contact:
Benny S Butarbutar
VP Corporate Communications
PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) TBK
Reporter: PR Wire
Editor: PR Wire
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