Garuda Seeks Alternative Route Following China's Flights Suspense
Translator
Editor
5 February 2020 15:30 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State airliner Garuda Indonesia examines the possibility of diverting routes from and to China to potential destinations at home and abroad. This policy was carried out to anticipate losses due to flight suspension to China following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
"We are trying to enter some of the routes into the existing route," Garuda Indonesia Managing Director Irfan Sebuahutra told Tempo on Wednesday, February 5, 2020.
In addition, Irfan allows the diversion of several aircraft that originally served China's routes (from and to China) to new routes. Garuda management is coordinating intensively with the Ministry of Tourism to look for potential markets.
As for now, the state air carrier has recorded a frequency of flights to China or a round trip as many as 40 trips every week. Irfan said that he had not yet calculated in detail the total losses incurred by the entity.
Previously, the transportation ministry has temporarily suspended flights to and from China, from February 3 until an undetermined deadline, as an effort to anticipate the new virus outbreak that is originated from China's Wuhan Province.
The policy is in line with the steps of the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise the emergency status of the coronavirus in China.
Fransisca Christy Rosana | Galuh Kurnia Ramadhani (Intern Translator)