Garuda persuaded to open route to Munich

The operator of Munich airport asks Garuda Indonesia to serve Jakarta-Munich route following the state airline’s plan to fly to Germany.

Floren Potsch, Marketing and Traffic Development Business Division Aviation at Munich Airport, revealed the operator had expressed this to Garuda.

“We have talked to them [Garuda] to fly to Munich. Next week, we will also still discuss the possibility,” Floren said yesterday, when the Munich delegation, together with Singapore Airlines, promoted Munich as the business and tourism destination city.

Singapore Airlines has recently opened its direct flight route Singapore-Munich in March 2010. According to Potsch, Munich airport was highly profitable for any airline flying to the city.

“Airlines flying or opening routes to Munich record remarkable and unprecedented profits. Just look at All Nippon Airways and Singapore Airlines.”

Munich airport is the second busiest airport in Germany, with the passenger traffic reaching 32.7 million people last year.

In the meantime, Frankfurt airport was the busiest, with the passenger traffic reaching 50.9 million passengers in 2009.

Potsch disclosed the flight market in Frankfurt was indeed lucrative, thanks to the high number of airlines flying from and to the city.

The upbeat aviation business in Frankfurt is also attributable to the relocation of Lufthansa headquarter from Berlin to Frankfurt.

However, the operator of Munich airport seems have to try harder to persuade Garuda since the state airline once expressed its plan to fly to Frankfurt after the European Union lifted its travel ban against the airline.

On the other hand, Garuda may find that it won’t be easy to realize the plan since the state airline has to compete with Asean airlines, such as Singapore Airline, Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airways, and Vietnam Airlines.

Thai Airways and Singapore Airlines have been tightly competing to open routes to Frankfurt and Munich.

The two airlines have provided 28 roundtrip direct flights a week to Frankfurt and 14 flights to Munich.

Hub airport Separately, Director of Strategy and Information Technology (IT) at Garuda Elisa Lumbantoruan exposed the company had not yet decided on whether it would fly to Frankfurt or Munich.

“What is certain, Garuda has a history of flying routes to Frankfurt,” she said.

She added the state airline was conducting a review based on the market conditions of the destination cities and the functions of the city airports.

“We have to know for sure if the airport is a hub airport that has wide networks to other cities,” inserted Elisa.

Elisa continued Garuda had also received a request from an airport operator in New Zealand to fly to the country. David Lau, Genera Manager of Singapore Airlines to Indonesia, welcomed Garuda’s plan to fly to Germany.

“If airlines, including Garuda, keep flying to cities in Germany, it will bolster the market, which is good for the industry.”

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