Garuda's Vice President for Marketing, Amelia Syafrina Dewi Nasution, announced during a visit to the United Kingdom recently that Garuda is to return to London this year with a non-stop service:
"When the new service begins in october this year, this will be the first non-stop scheduled service between Jakarta and London. Schedules and fares are now being finalized, and full details will be announced before the flights go on sale in April."
4 new Boeing 777-300ERs to be delivered this year. It has been touted that the new 777-300ERs will be used for Jakarta-Amsterdam non-stop replacing the Jakarta-Abu Dhabi-Amsterdam and the A330-200 service will then be moved elsewhere later when Frankfurt gets the 777-300ER. This announcement for London non-stop will likely change those plans, however the frequency of the planned London service remains a mystery. The Boeing 777-300ER will have 184 Economy Class seats, 42 flat-bed Business Class seats and 8 First Class cabins.
This piece of news was found on the website Alternative Airlines, which is part of Flight Directors, Garuda's General Sales Agents in the United Kingdom. The news builds on December's announcement by the CEO Emirsyah Satar of the airline's plan to fly to London in late 2013 or early 2014. He cited that there is an estimated 5,000 passengers flying between Indonesia and the United Kingdom every day.
8F + 42C + 184Y = 234 pax ? may be this is the most spacious 77W in southeast asia since SQ's 77W is configured with 8P + 42J + 228Y = 278 pax
ReplyDelete1) GA flying non-stop to London will be great - as long as it's Heathrow. Last time they flew to London, it was Gatwick - which is really for holiday traffic - any airline serious about being 5 star or world class needs to fly to Heathrow. SkyTeam are at Heathrow Terminal 4 & can accommodate them.
ReplyDelete2) Although the Garuda CEO is doing an excellent job, I don't think the figure of 5000 pax each day betweek UK & Indonesia is correct - 5000 per month maybe. After all, there are less than 10000 people of Indonesian origin living in the UK. Emirates already take the biggest share between UK & Indonesia with 12 daily flights UK-DXB (6 x A380) and from March 2013, 3 daily flights DXB-CGK.
So GA have confirmed B777-300ER non-stop from October 2013 Jakarta to London - unfortunately it is Gatwick, not Heathrow. Obviously after leisure traffic only - Business will fly from Heathrow on SQ, EK, MH, etc. Hopefully it will switch to LHR.
ReplyDeleteyes, i`m quite agree with that. Heathrow has a better service than Gatwick. i still prefer MH with their A380. And MH is cheaper than GA even it has transit at MH base KL. And, it starts in November, not October for GA.
ReplyDeleteand. that is totally wrong. For economy on B777-300ER 184 pax? Get real! it accommodates up to 314 pax in 3-class configuration.
ReplyDeleteOh dear - news is that Garuda postpone their London flight as the runway/apron at CGK cannot handle such a heavy aircraft (B777-300ER with full pax & fuel from CGK to LGW). Did they not check this out before ordering such an aircraft/announcing the non-stop route? Did CGK promise them all would be ok & Garuda believed them? Very poor PR from Garuda.
ReplyDeletePhilippine Airlines are to return to London (Heathrow) in October 2013: non-stop flight from Manila with B777-300ER - makes Garuda's excuse sound even more amateur both to the trade and to the public. GA have to fly non-stop LHR to CGK if they want to be taken seriously and complete with EK, SQ, MH, QR. Otherwise fly London Gatwick to Bali and look after the holiday traffic.
ReplyDelete