Indigo today launched its maiden direct flight to Jakarta, Indonesia, making it the airline's 106th destination overall and 28th international destination.
With the inauguration of this flight, IndiGo became the only Indian carrier to operate flights between India’s financial capital Mumbai and Jakarta.
Connectivity is the starting point of any relationship. The primary reason for connecting these destinations is the massive trade and commerce opportunities between the two cities, said Malvika Priyadarshini, First Secretary, Embassy of India, Jakarta while speaking to DH. There are also 100,000+ Indians in Indonesia for whom this will be a means to connect the diaspora with their roots, she added.
Jakarta is Indonesia's capital and largest city. India ranked four in terms of travellers to Indonesia The direct flight is expected to boost this count, raising India's rank to two.
"This new route not only strengthens bilateral ties and enhances direct connectivity, but also enables access and promotes trade and tourism across Indonesia and India," seconded Vinay Malhotra, head of global sales at IndiGo. For further expansion, this route connects Jakarta to IndiGo’s wide network across India, Central Asia and the Middle East," he added.
The airline has deployed the 186-seater A320 Neo aircraft for this route.
Addressing the media at the inaugural event, Malhotra said the airline is seeing a growing number of passengers from the Middle East flying to various destinations in the South East. Talking about further expansion plans, he revealed that the airline will add Shivamogga in Karnataka. It is also extensively launching flights to destinations across the world including Tbilisi in Georgia on August 08, Baku in Azerbaijan and Almaty in Kazakhstan among others.
This year our tourism (revenue) grew 250% and India emerged as one of the top five markets contributing to 40% after Singapore and Malaysia even without the direct flight, a senior official from Jakarta's Ministry of Tourism explained. With the direct flights starting between the two cities, this share is expected to increase significantly.
Next month, Batik Air is also expected to start direct flights from Chennai to Jakarta, the official informed.