Lufthansa German Airlines is planning to resume Frankfurt-Jakarta flights come March 30 this year, putting an end to the suspension of this service since October 2012 due to the carrier’s network restructure.
The resumption of the five-weekly service, operated via Kuala Lumpur, is backed by strong passenger traffic and cargo demand between Indonesia and Europe.
During the suspension of services to the Indonesian capital city, Lufthansa has continued to offer flights to Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong – routes that resulted in production that was “70 per cent beyond what we had originally targeted” last year, said Leandro Tonidandel, general manager Indonesia.
In addition to the new flights this summer, Lufthansa has been enhancing its reach to Indonesian travellers through various manners, including a recent partnership with Garuda, Jetstar and Singapore Airlines to “link our gateways in Asia with different regions in Indonesia”.
Noting that Indonesia is a G-20 member country, the 16th largest economy in the world and the 15th largest car manufacturer worldwide, Tonidandel said: “We see tremendous opportunity to continue improving commercial ties between Indonesia, ASEAN and Europe.”
Meanwhile, Air France will commence daily services between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Jakarta, via Singapore, on the same day, after 10 years of being offline.
Duncan Rutgers, country manager for Air France KLM Indonesia, said: “Jakarta as Air France’s new route fits perfectly into our strategy to focus on South-east Asia’s huge potential.
“There are many French companies coming into Indonesia, with a current count of about 250 such firms,” he said, adding that leisure and education segments will also feed traffic to the new route.
The service will complement KLM’s daily Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur-Amsterdam and daily Denpasar-Singapore-Amsterdam flights.
“Altogether there will be 21 flights per week from Indonesia to Europe in Summer 2014,” said Rutgers. – Mimi Hudoyo
