Garuda Indonesia is targeting the UK to Australia air market by retiming flights Down Under to coincide with its new Gatwick-Jakarta service.
The airline has amended its schedules so that the new non-stop Gatwick service which starts on November 2 connects in Jakarta with onward flights to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
The Indonesian airline is taking a leaf out of Singapore Airlines’ book in that the connections (for Melbourne and Sydney at least) are perfectly timed in both directions.
It also hopes to woo those ‘Kangaroo route’ customers who may prefer to route to and from the UK via south-east Asia rather than through the Gulf hubs.
A further bonus for travellers is that Garuda is starting these new routes in November which is the start of the busy season for travel Down Under when all airlines hike their prices.
Garuda did serve the ‘Kangaroo route’ many years ago. But in those days it offered slow, multi-stop flights. The new one-stop service with brand new planes will represent an entirely different product.
The new service from Gatwick will be GA87 which will depart daily (except Wednesday and Friday) at 10.00 to arrive into Jakarta at 06.15 the following day. Flight time is 13 hours 15 minutes.
This flight is operated by a three class B777-300ER and it is believed the same aircraft will continue through between Gatwick and Sydney.
Garuda has not released any fares either for Gatwick-Jakarta or for the new onward services to Australia. This means that bookings are currently not possible.
garudaindonesia.co.uk