Piloted by Captain Syahreza, the Air Asia aircraft from Jakarta landed for the first time at Bandung`s Husein Sastranegara airport at 7.07 local time on Tuesday morning.
Flown on the Air Asia A-320 jetliner from Jakarta to Bandung were the airline company`s President Director Dhardmadi, airport management company PT Angkasapura-II president director Tri S Sunoko, and a number of officials.
Arriving at Husein Sastranegara airport, they were greeted by West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan who had been waiting at the airport waiting room since the morning.
"It is our pride to be the first airline company to serve Husein Sastranegara airport with Airbus A-320," Air Asia President Director Dharmadi said.
He said the presence of such an aircraft with the capacity of 180 passengers was part of the company`s commitment to improving West Java`s economic and tourism sectors.
Dharmadi added that it would also be able to improve the flow of tourist visits to the city of Bandung, known as "Paris van Java."
According to him, the Air Asia A-320 would serve Bandung-Kuala Lumpur route starting this year.
"Seven years ago, exactly in 2004, we pioneered Bandung-Kuala Lumpur route with one flight per week when no other air line company eyed that potential route," he said.
He said the high market potential of Bandung-Kuala Lumpur and Bandung-Singapore routes encouraged Air Asia to open other routes namely Bandung-Denpasar and Bandung-Medan.
"The load factor for Bandung-Kuala Lumpur and Bandung-Singapore at present is over 80 percent, and the enormous public interest to fly by Air Asia encourage us to server more flights to and from Bandung," he said.
(Uu.O001/HAJM/S012)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
