TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Batik Air, a subsidiary of Lion Air Group, is planning to buy seven Airbus next year, President Director Ahmad Luthfi said.
The purchase will be made in a bid to expand Batik Air business. The airline currently has 51 aircraft, serving 38 domestic and international destinations with a frequency of 280 flights a day.
Luthfi added that before the end of the year the company will open three new flight routes, two domestic and one international.
The first route is Soekarno-Hatta Airport to Silangit Airport in North Sumatra on December 1. On December 15, Batik Air will make a maiden flight to Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara.
Batik Air has long been planning to open a new route to the tourist destinations, according to him. The airline will go ahead with the plan after the airports in the two regions have been upgraded for Airbus 320 landing.
“We plan to open the routes to support tourism. We also predict that the number of passengers, particularly tourists, will increase,” he noted.
As for the international route, Batik Air will fly to Kinabalu, Malaysia, on December 15 from Soekarno-Hatta Airport. The decision was made due to high demand and the number of Indonesian migrant workers in the city.
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