On Friday, 10 February 2012 at 13.50 hrs, Garuda Indonesia’s B 737-500 plane carrying 96 passengers from Surabaya landed smoothly at Husein Sastranegara Airport in Bandung, capital of West Java. The arrival of flight GA 360 marked the start of the airline’s plan to make this cool mountain city its next domestic and regional destination.

When average load factor on the Surabaya-Bandung sector reaches 75% to 80%, then Garuda plans to fly regionally to Bandung from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, said Arief Wibowo, Commercial Director Garuda. 

The airline now serves Surabaya-Bandung once daily, leaving Surabaya, capital of East Java, at 12.35 hrs and departing Bandung at 14.35 hrs to arrive in Surabaya at 15.45, connecting with flights to Makassar and Denpasar, Bali. For the first two weeks Garuda offers special promotional fares starting at IDR. 333,000 on economy and IDR. 999,00 in Executive Class. Beyond the two weeks until 15 June 2012, the Garuda offers special promotional rates.

Meanwhile, with the increase in international and domestic flights to Bandung, the Husein Sastranegara airport will be expanded to 6,000 sq meters, to include cargo terminal, hangars and parking lot.

At the moment the terminal is already over its capacity of 700,000, handling 900,000 passengers yearly serving 17 domestic and 7 international flights each day.

With the expansion, Bandung airport will be able to handle 2 million passengers

Meantime, during her recent visit to Bandung, Minister for Tourism and Creative Economy, Mari Elka Pangestu stressed since the city has so many creative talents available, a city known for its fashion products, handicrafts, IT and arts, and popular for its culinary offerings, Bandung should be developed into a city for the Arts, Culture and Creative Industries. To support such development, Minister Mari Pangestu promised to look into the construction of an Exhibition hall to exhibit and market the city’s many creative potentials.

(Source Bisnis Indonesia)

Photo Courtesy: indonesiafinancetoday.com