Garuda Indonesia plans to connect Bali to East Timor

Indonesian flagship airline Garuda Indonesia is due in October to launch flights between Denpasar, Bali and Dili, the capital of East Timor, the airline’s director of sales and promotion Erik Meijer said recently. Cited by the Jakarta Post, Meijer said the company will have a daily flight between Denpasar and Dili, following a memorandum of understanding signed last week with Air Timor, the flagship carrier of Timor-Leste. The memorandum of understanding was signed by the CEO of Garuda Indonesia, Emirsyah Satar and the Director of Air Timor, Bento Francisco Alves Pereira Belchior as part of a visit to Timor-Leste’s by Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Meijer said that Garuda Indonesia is optimistic about the connection to Dili as there are few flights to the capital of Timor-Leste “and we trying to respond to market demands.”