Garuda Adds Domestic Links from Medan

Garuda Indonesia has announced plans to introduce five new domestic routes from Medan, the capital city of North Sumatra, during the first quarter of 2012. The new flights to Bandung, Denpasar, Makassar, Pekanbaru and Surabaya are being introduced to meet growing demand for internal flights from the region for both business and leisure travel and will likely lead to Garuda establishing a mini-hub in the western city.

The national carrier already has regional hubs in Denpasar and Makassar as well as its main operation in the capital Jakarta. The regional network expansion will be made possible by the expansion of the carrier’s fleet with new regional and both short- and long-haul equipment due for delivery this year. The latter will facilitate the launch of new international connections from Denpasar to Tokyo Haneda (from April 2012) and New Delhi (from the third quarter of 2012) and between Jakarta and the Taiwanese capital Taipei (from May 2012).

Garuda currently has only a limited presence at Medan with up to ten flights a day from Jakarta and a twice daily connection from Banda Aceh, although it is the second largest operator by available capacity with a 19.6 per cent share of the capacity. Lion Air is the largest carrier at Medan offering links to BTH, Banda Aceh, Batam, Jakarta, Padang and Pekanbaru and this month holds a 36.4 per cent share of the available seats.