Indonesia and Indian businessmen plan to establish a new airline company to be called PT Pacific Royale, confirmed air transportation director-general Herry Bhakti.

The plan was triggered by an air service agreement between the two countries that has been renewed. The agreement regulates flight availability for national airlines wanting to fly to India.

Herry also said that Samudra Sukardi had been named as the new project manager for the airline. Samudra, who may be the candidate for the company’s president director, was previously the candidate for the CEO position at PT Garuda Indonesia.

Pacific Royale is currently lodging its flight permits in India and Indonesia and has not yet made a company presentation at the Indonesian Transportation Ministry.

The airline has not confirmed what aircraft it will use, but Herry said the company would offer full services on its flights.

PT Garuda Indonesia also plans to start flying to India. According to Elisa Lumbantoruan, Garuda’s information technology and strategic director, the company is arranging the permits so that it can start flying to India in the second semester of this year. Garuda said that in principle, the airline has already obtained the permit.

The market for this route, Elisa said, was very open as no airlines currently offer direct flights there. Most flights to India go via Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

Garuda is interested because of the high traffic on Indonesia-India flights. In addition, a large number of Indians work in Indonesia and export-import growth between the two countries is expected to grow over coming years.

The airline plans to fly to India not only from Jakarta, but also from Denpasar, Bali. For the first stage, there will be one daily flight from Jakarta to Chennai and Mumbai.

News Source : Tempo Interactive

Photo Source : daily mail

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