Garuda and Lion Add Seats for Holidays

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:  The state airline company Garuda Indonesia is preparing 10,500 additional seats prevailing from Dec. 20-Jan. 4, 2013. “To prepare for the Christmas and the New Year holidays, we are installing additional seats for the routes, Jakarta-Denpasar, Jakarta-Surabaya, and Surabaya-Denpasar," Pujobroto, Corporate Communications VP of Garuda Indonesia, told Tempo on Dec. 5.

There are nine flights everyday plying the Jakarta-Singapore and Jakarta-Denpasar routes. The airline flies the 737-800 NG aircraft with a capacity of 162 passengers. At the peak season at the end of the December and during the first week in January 2013, Garuda Indonesia will to operate the B 747-400, a large aircraft with a capacity of 400 passengers for flights to Denpasar and Singapore.

With the additional seats, Garuda is targeting the load factor to reach 90 percent. Lion Air will also plans to add extra seats.

Lion Air plans to add 30,000 extra seats, 10 days before and after the New Year. “Last year, there were 18,000 additional seats and 80 percent of them were sold,” Lion Mentari Airlines CEO, Edward Sirait, said. Excluding the 30,000 extra seats, the airline’s capacity is 140,000 seats per day.

The additional seats apply to traditional routes. The traditional routes for this month cover tourism areas with the majority of people celebrating Christmas. Lion Air will make available extra seats for round-trips, especially the Cengkareng-Denpasar and Surabaya-Balikpapan routes.

Source:    http://www.tempointeractive.com