Asiana to open Jakarta route next month

JAKARTA. Major South Korean airline Asiana is expected to launch its Indonesian services next month giving travelers more alternatives when flying between the two countries.

Asiana Airlines Jakarta sales branch regional general manager Cheol Woo Park said in Jakarta on Thursday that the carrier would commence its daily flights from Seoul to Jakarta on July 19.

“We will also connect Denpasar [Bali] to Seoul on July 25 and we are going to start it by flying twice a week,” Park said.

The airline will operate an Airbus A330-300 and a Boeing 767, able to carry more than 250 passengers, for the Jakarta–Seoul and Denpasar–Seoul routes, respectively.

In the future, he said, Asiana would connect more places both in Indonesia and Korea in order to boost business and tourism between the two countries.

Asiana will be the second Korean airline serving Indonesia, after Korean Air, which has for years served Jakarta and Denpasar.

Separately, the Transportation Ministry’s air transportation director Djoko Murjatmodjo said that Indonesia and Korea had recently renewed the bilateral air service agreement that increased air slots between both destinations from 10 to 23 flights per week.

Apart from national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and Korean Air, Djoko said that Indonesia AirAsia and Batik Air had expressed interest in serving the Jakarta–Seoul or Denpasar–Seoul routes this year.

According to data from the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry information center, the number of Korean tourists to Indonesia has been relatively stable from year to year.

The data shows there were 303,856 travelers from Korea last year, a 1.23 percent increase from 300,174 in the previous year.

The number of Indonesian tourists visiting South Korea, on the other hand, has shown a significant increase in the past several years, making the Southeast Asian country one of Korea’s main tourist markets in the Asia and Pacific.

With the increase in the number of airlines connecting the two countries, Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) estimates there will be a 30 percent increase in the number of Indonesian travelers to 180,000 by the end of this year thanks to the growth in the country’s middle class.

KTO Jakarta office director Jong Sool Kwon said in Jakarta on Thursday that Indonesia was one of South Korea’s top inbound tourist markets in the Asia Pacific region.

“We believe that we are going to achieve the target because we offer a lot of interesting packages to the Indonesian travelers with more affordable prices than other countries. The target is also supported by many programs that we will launch in Indonesia this year because we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties with your country,” Kwon said in Jakarta on Thursday.

Among the programs that will help support the target are the Korean Film Festival, which will be held in Jakarta and Bandung, the Korean Food Festival in Jakarta, the Contemporary Plastic Artists Exhibition and the M Countdown Concert featuring K-Pop stars 2PM, B2ST and Shinhwa.

The KTO office also plans to offer Muslim tour packages in August this year in a bid to attract more Muslim travelers to their destinations. (Nurfika Osman, The Jakarta Post)