TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Low-cost carrier Citilink Indonesia plans to open its first international direct route to Frankfurt, Germany and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in October and December 2019, respectively. The new routes will be supported by the wide-body aircraft Airbus A330--900NEO.

“The newest Airbus type allows the plane to travel 13,000 KM,” said the airliner president director Juliandra Nurtjahjo as quoted from Bisnis.com, Tuesday, August 20.

The new route to Frankfurt is developed as it is the third-largest airport hub in Europe after London and Amsterdam. Juliandra claims the route will be the first budget carrier to serve a long-distance flight to Europe.

While the route to Jeddah is set to be opened in December 2019 because of its promising market. The travel time is estimated to take two days.

So far, the carrier which is the member of Garuda Indonesia Group has served flights to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia since 2014, yet in the form of charter. Throughout 2018, the charter flight catered to 17,658 umrah pilgrims.

Therefore, Juliandra opines the market for umrah pilgrimage flight has a high potential growth every year. “Citilink sees it as one of the potential revenue streams,” he said.

BISNIS