All Nippon Airways Now Flying to Jakarta

TEMPO Interactive, Tangerang:Japanese airline, All Nippon Airways (ANA), made its premier flight to Jakarta last Friday. The Boeing 767 carrying 167 passengers landed at Soekarno-Hatta Airport after a five-hour flight from Narita Airport.Esthy Reko Astuty, the Tourism and Culture Ministrys Promotion and Publication director, said with ANA operating daily flights between Jakarta and Narita, the potential to attract Japanese tourists to Indonesia was growing. This will boost the number of tourists. The Japanese market is very good. We will offer golf and spa, activities Japanese tourists generally enjoy, Esthy said. After the first flight, the ministry hopes that the government will be able to implement its visa-on-board policy. Last year, 428,000 Japanese tourists visited Indonesia. The government projects targets that 523,000 Japanese tourists will visit this year. The target for foreign tourist visits this year totals 7.7 million people.Kimura Tsutomu, one of the passengers on board the ANA flight, said she planned to have a vacation in Central Java.Sjachrul Firdaus, spokesperson for the Jakarta branch of the Association of Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA), said his office would collaborate with the ministry to increase tourism promotion in Japan. If there are 202 passengers per day, you can count how many Japanese tourists come to Indonesian in one week, he said.Previously, direct flights from Japan were operated by Japan Airlines (JAL). After shutting down the route, direct flights from Tokyo to Jakarta were managed by Garuda Indonesia. ANA flies once every day from Jakarta at 08.40 and arrives at 14.25 with a Boeing 737-600 ER that can carry 202 passengers. From Japan, ANA departs at 21.10 and arrives at 06.30. AYU CIPTA