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STATE-Owned Enterprise (BUMN) airline, namely PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk (GIAA), is expanding its Umrah route network through direct flights to the Middle East from five cities in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, the five cities include Yogyakarta, Makassar, Surabaya, Banda Aceh, and Kertajati, with the destinations of Jeddah and Medina in Saudi Arabia, according to information received in Jakarta, Tuesday (7/25), 2023.
According to Garuda Indonesia PresidentDirector, Irfan Setiaputra explained, flight services from the five cities will be operated in stages from August to September 2023. The expansion of these flight services is the company’s effort to bridge the need for safe and comfortable flight services for the public to travel for worship, as Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim population in the world.
“The expansion of direct flight routes to Jeddah and Medina from five cities in 2023 is a reflection of Garuda’s optimism for the opportunity for Umrah flight services to grow significantly, especially amidst public interest to immediately depart for the Holy Land during the current endemic phase,” said Irfan.
Irfan continued, the operation of flight services to the Holy Land will be carried out in stages, starting from the operation of the Banda Aceh to Jeddah round-trip flights on August 3, 2023, which will operate once in 2 weeks.
Then, the operation of the Kertajati to Jeddah (round-trip) flight on 6 August 2023, which will operate 1 time per week, and the Makassar to Jeddah (round-trip) route on 8 August 2023, which will operate 2 times per week.
Then, Yogyakarta to Jeddah (round-trip) flights starting August 12, 2023 which will be served once per week, Banda Aceh to Medina (round-trip) flights starting August 14 which will be served once per 2 weeks, and the Surabaya to Jeddah (round-trip) route via Banda Aceh will operate twice per week starting September 2023.
“We are also optimizing the flight network to the Middle East this year by increasing the flight frequency for the Jakarta to Jeddah (round-trip) route to 16 times per week, and Jakarta to Medina 7 times per week, which will begin in August,” said Irfan.
Through these various efforts, in September 2023, Garuda Indonesia will serve 29 flights to the Holy Land, or an increase of 70% compared to the previous Umrah flight service which served 17 times per week from Jakarta.
“In addition, I hope the operation of this flight will be able to boost the Indonesian economy through the potential for Indonesia’s agricultural products and superior MSMEs to be exported to Saudi Arabia as a step to expand Indonesia’s export market share to the international stage,” Irfan concluded. [sources/photo special]
