Year of the Sheep should bring plenty of Chinese to Baaali

Even though the year of the sheep in 2015 is not the most fortuitous time for Chinese to have a baby, Garuda Indonesia will make this next Chinese New Year’s special by opening new routes connecting China and Indonesia.

The airline will reportedly start chartered flights from 10 Chinese cities to Manado, northern Sulawesi and Bali to kick off the 2015 Chinese New Year and summer vacation season. You can expect links via Boeing 747-400 from Chengdu, Chongqin, Ningbo and Kunming from February 14 to March 6. While summer flights from July 15 to August 15 on A-330 will service Jinan, Harbin, Xian, Shenyang and Chengzhou to Bali.

Don’t worry, these chartered flight services will not throw off Garuda Indonesia’s regular flights to Bali with transit in Jakarta from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. There will be plenty of opportunities to go to China and for the Chinese to come here. With this schedule, Garuda will end up bringing people from China to Indonesia daily: four regular flights plus three chartered flights a week. China has been cited as a major potential market, as almost 100 million Chinese travel abroad every year, said Asa Perkasa, Garuda Indonesia General Manager for Beijing.

The time couldn’t be better for Garuda. This news comes right as reports came out that China along with four other countries could receive Indonesian visa waivers for its citizens. Talk about seizing the opportunity. 

Source: Antara

Photo: Flickr/Aero Icarus

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