Bali News

Garuda Indonesia confirmed its resume its European services starting at the first quarter of 2010. The confirmation was made immediately after European Union revoked its ban against four Indonesian airliners.

The statement was made by Garuda’s spokesman, Pujobroto, in response to the decision made by European Union in their three days assembly in Brussel between June 30th and July 2nd 2009. Among recommendations drawn in the event was revocation of ban against four Indonesian airliners namely Garuda, Mandala, Airfast, and Prime Air.

The official decision will be issued within the next two weeks after translation into 22 official languages of European Union members and signed the commissioner for transportation. Pujobroto further exposed Garuda’s positive response about the decision and therefore immediately decided to resume its European services starting from Amsterdam.

However serious preparation is needed which is expected to take about nine months, pushing the service can only start to commence in the first quarter of 2010. He further informed that Garuda has not decided the aircraft type to be used. “We possibly use A330-200, which requires one stop, temporarily “, he said. “When our 10 new Boeing 777 delivered sometime between late 2010 and early 2011, we can fly non stop to any European destinations”, he continued.

Second to Amsterdam will be Frankfurt. “We chose Amsterdam as the first destination for significant demand for the route”, he said. Garuda ceased its service to Amsterdam back in 2004 for commercial reasons. Inline with the plan to resume its European services, Garuda will increase its service quality, especially operating new aircrafts.

European Union banned all Indonesian airliners since July 2007 after a series of accident.