AVIATION - Garuda to Abandon Bali as a Secondary Air Hub

Balidiscovery.com, (9/29/2006)

Garuda Indonesia may soon be restructuring its network, minimizing the role of Bali as a flight hub and restructuring its network such that many of its Australian, and all its Japanese, flights will operate via Jakarta.

Garuda's Vice-president of Sales and Marketing, Agus Priyanto: "We are now studying the way we operate out of dual hubs in Jakarta and Bali. But we expect to only use Jakarta because having two hubs is too costly and the recovery of the Australian market to Bali has been slower than expected, and (due to) Garuda's limited fleet."

According to Priyanto, "running two hubs was like running two different airlines."

This move, should it proceed, would take effect at the end of March 2007 and would apply to routes utilizing wide-bodied A330 aircraft. Only Australia's East Coast routes would be affected, with Perth services continuing to operate direct to Bali.

Garuda's Southwest Pacific Regional Manger, Suranto Yitnopawiro, stated that he understood that in global planning, individual markets must be assessed on their own merits and decisions taken that will benefit the network as a whole.

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