Indonesia’s commercial air travel industry has seen a new development as Pelita Air expands its scheduled routes to domestic destinations. Pelita Air, originally a charter and cargo airline serving the oil and gas industry and a subsidiary of Indonesia’s state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina, said it now offers “affordable domestic flight services” designed to avoid mismanagement and debt problems. It has been plaguing the flag carrier Garuda Indonesia. To move beyond charter and cargo operations, Pelita Air will use two recently purchased Airbus A320-200 aircraft with a new corporate design.
Indonesia’s commercial air travel industry has seen a new development as Pelita Air expands its scheduled routes to domestic destinations.
Pelita Air, originally a charter and cargo airline serving the oil and gas industry and a subsidiary of Indonesia’s state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina, said it now offers “affordable domestic flight services” designed to avoid mismanagement and debt problems.have troubled Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia.
To move beyond charter and cargo operations, Pelita Air will use two recently purchased Airbus A320-200 aircraft with a new corporate design. The first flight departed from Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on April 28, following the popular route to Bali.
Popular business and holiday destinations
The airline also plans to operate routes from Jakarta to Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Banjarmasin and Makassar. It targets business travelers and vacationers alike, with the latter expected in large numbers during the peak European summer travel season in July and August as global travel restrictions are lifted.
Pelita Air has appointed Dendy Kurniawan as President Director, who left the same position at Indonesia’s AirAsia earlier this month.
For now, Pelita Air will focus on domestic flights, tapping into the country’s huge domestic air travel potential. Data before Covid-19 showed that 72% of flights serving Indonesia covered domestic routes.
“Huge” domestic customer potential
“Indonesia is an archipelagic country of 273 million people. It’s a huge market.” By focusing on domestic routes, “Pelita can fly higher” and eventually become a global airline, said Erick Thohir, Indonesia’s state-owned enterprise minister.
Hope Pelita Air fares better than its predecessor Pelita AirVenture, also owned by Pertamina, which began offering scheduled services in 2000 but ceased operations in 2005 due to intense competition in the scheduled air space at the time.
