New Airport in Malang Opens New Direct Routes
29 June 2015 13:00 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Malang - Abdurrachman Saleh Airport’s inauguration in Malang, East Java, will attract airlines to open new routes from and to the city. So far, a number of flight routes to Lombok, Bandung and Balikpapan have been proposed.
“However, the new routes will have to be approved by the Transportation Ministry and the Air Force as the land owner,” East Java Land Traffic and Transportation Agency head Wahid Wahyudi said on Sunday, June 28, 2015.
Currently, there are ten flight slots at Abdulrachman Shaleh airport. Sriwijaya Air and Garuda Indonesia respectively have three and two flight slots serving the Malang-Jakarta route. Meanwhile, Citilink has one flight slot for the same route.
Both Wings Air and Batik Air have one slot, which the former serves Denpasar-Malang-Denpasar route, whle the latter serves Jakarta-Malang-Jakarta and Malang-Makassar-Malang routes starting April this year. Meanwhile, Kalstar Aviation that used to serve the Balikpapan-Malang-Balikpapan route is currently not operational.
Earlier on Thursday, June 25, Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan, accompanied by East Java Governor Soekarwo inaugurated the new airport, which its development was taken from the East Java Budget.
ABDI PURMONO
