TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's flag-carrier Garuda Indonesia has prepared 1.61 million extra seats to anticipate the surge of travelers during the Eid holiday period.

Garuda Indonesia's vice president for corporate communications, Pujobroto, said that the airline had prepared 1.61 million additional seats between July 9 to July 27.

"The amount of extra seats is eight percent greater compared to the additional seats that Garuda deployed during the same period last year, where 1.49 million seats were made available," he told a press conference on Wednesday.

Pujobroto said that 16,044 extra seats will be made available between Jakarta and Denpasar, Padang, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney and Perth. "Garuda will operate extra flights and deploy larger aircraft during the period," he said.

Pujobroto explained that larger airplanes would be deployed between Jakarta and Denpasar, Padang, Surabaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong, whereas extra flights would be added to Garuda's regular services between Jakarta and Yogyakarta, Denpasar, Sydney and Perth.

"Garuda advises passengers to plan ahead in order to avoid possible delays and inconveniences caused by the operation of the additional flights," said Pujobroto.

ANTARA