In Reply to: Garuda Pulls out of Darwin posted by Darwingirl on Thursday, 16. April 2009 at 06:54 Bali Time:
Garuda pulls pin on Darwin after 30 years
NIGEL ADLAM
April 16th, 2009
GARUDA: Departing the NT for good
GARUDA: Departing the NT for good
GARUDA Indonesia is pulling out of the Territory after nearly 30 years.
The airline's last return flight will leave Darwin for Bali tomorrow morning.
The final flight will take off for Denpasar on Monday - and not return.
A thrice-weekly direct service between Darwin and Jakarta is also unlikely to go ahead.
Garuda has been flying between Darwin and Denpasar since 1980 and was the only full-service carrier servicing the route.
The airline celebrated its 60th anniversary earlier this year by offering bargain fares to Bali.
AirNorth dropped its Darwin-Bali service last year after saying that the market was flooded. Australian budget outfit Jetstar will now be the only airline flying the route.
Garuda NT manager Syahrul Tahir could not be contacted last night. But the travel industry said the market was "saturated".
Garuda flew to Bali three times a week in competition to Jetstar's daily flights.
Frangipani, which sells Bali holidays to travel agencies, said the global financial crisis had nothing to do with Garuda's demise.
Company boss Xana Kamitsis said: "I believe it's a much more local issue than that.
"We're only a community of 120,000 and there's not enough of us to fly to Bali that often."
She said Garuda's decision to stop servicing the route came at a time when Territorians were returning to Bali "in droves".
"I go there once a month and it's packed with Territorians," she said. "But eight flights a week is still a lot.
"This decision to stop flying from Darwin will cost jobs. We need community pressure to get Garuda to stay."
Garuda is expected to lay on special flights for the Arafura Games next month.
Some people in the travel industry said Garuda had been grounded by the Federal Government.
But the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese's office said this was untrue.