barrybeebone

The following story was quoted in the Indonesian press today. After having lived in Indonesia for a while I have noticed frequent comments in the press from Indonesian airlines about where they intend to fly to. In recent years the press have quoted Batavia, Lion, Adam Air, Air Asia and merpati as all planning on flying to Australia, China, Malaysia and other parts of Asia. How many of these actually fly to these destinations? Perhaps malysia or Singapore but the rest are just filed with talk. Does anyone know if these airlines will actually go through with these plans or are these comments just staff speaking out of turn?

Sriwijaya Air is to expand its flight service overseas, including to Australia. "By March next year we plan to connect Indonesia with Guangzhou (China), Perth, Sydney, Melbourne (Australia) and Dubai," business development manager Charles An said.

Jango

I can confirm there is at least one Indonesian airline that is actively applying for routes in Australia and Middle East. I have heard that Sriwajaya are pursuing an Australian route but I do not know anyone within the organization to be able to confirm it. Sriwijaya seem to have pretty ambitious plans for a fleet of mainly 737-200s (a couple of -300s on the way I hear), but good luck to them.

Indonesian airlines already fly to China, Singapore and Malaysian destinations and Indonesia is trying hard to get their aviation industry upgraded, but it is a slow process.