Two air
hostesses stand next to a Boeing 737-900 plane of the new Indonesian
airline
Batik Air in Tangerang on the outskirts of Jakarta on April 25, 2013 (AFP,
Adek
Berry)
|
Singapore —
An airline owned by Indonesia's Lion Group announced Thursday it will launch
international services with a flight from Jakarta to Singapore later this year.
Batik Air,
which is part of the Lion Group that also owns Indonesian budget carrier Lion
Air, will start the flights by November or December, said its chief executive
Achmad Luthfie.
The
airline, which operates as a full-service carrier with meals and drinks and
offers business and economy class seating, began operations in May last year
servicing domestic destinations in Indonesia.
"Our
first international destination will be Singapore and we aim to have more than
a daily service on the route," Luthfie said in a statement.
"We chose
Singapore as our first international destination because we can see that demand
continues to increase," he added.
Speaking at
a news conference in Singapore, Luthfie said Batik Air plans to fly next from
the Indonesian capital to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Luthfie
said that eventually it is looking to fly to Southern China and Western
Australia.
On the
domestic front, the airline plans to more than double its network to 22
destinations including Palembang, Solo and Batam.
Luthfie
said the carrier is currently filling 90 percent of seats.
Batik Air
operates six Boeing 737-900ER aircrafts and is based in Jakarta's
Soekarno-Hatta airport.
Six Airbus
A320 aircraft and four Boeing 737-800 planes will be delivered by the end of
this year, the airline said.
Indonesia,
a sprawling archipelago of over 17,000 islands cutting across three time zones,
relies heavily on air transport and is experiencing a sharp growth in its
aviation sector, thanks to a rapidly rising middle class.
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