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Garuda to Start Direct Flights to Amsterdam Next Year
Putri Prameshwari | August 23, 2009

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Garuda Indonesia will begin direct flights to the Netherlands next year after an air agreement was signed between Indonesian and Dutch authorities, the Transportation Ministry said on Sunday.

Herry Bhakti Singayuda, director general of civil aviation at the ministry, said the bilateral agreement signed in The Hague revised the countries’ last agreement. “It was last updated in 1994,” he said. “Now we have aligned it to our agreement with the European Union.”

The EU lifted its flight restrictions on four Indonesian carriers — Garuda, Mandala Airlines, PremiAir and Airfast — in July, allowing them to fly in to Europe after being banned for two years. The ban is still in place for other local airlines.

Herry said the agreement designated Garuda and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines as the two carriers to service the route between the countries, and included a code-sharing deal.

In the agreement, safety measures were updated in line with International Civil Aviation Organization regulations, he said, and tariffs were also discussed.

Garuda’s chief executive, Emirsyah Satar, said the airline would start flying to Amsterdam early next year.

“We will use our fleet of Boeing 737-800 NGs,” he said, adding that the airline also planned to use their Boeing 777s and Airbus 330-200s on the route.

The agreement with the Netherlands was reached after the “Initial Agreement on Certain Other Aspects of Air Services,” was signed between Indonesia and the EU on Aug. 17 in Brussels.

The EU agreement, Herry said, outlined possible new routes with Europe. The next destination was likely to be London, depending on market assessments.

A statement released by the EU said that the agreement would establish a direct legal relationship between Indonesia and the EU in the civil aviation field for the first time.

“Most importantly, it will remove nationality restrictions in the bilateral air services agreements between EU member states and Indonesia,” it said.

The flight ban was imposed by the EU on Indonesian airlines in July 2007 citing safety and monitoring issues.