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Garuda Indonesia resumes flights to Europe

01 June 2010, 12:07 CET
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(JAKARTA) - Indonesian flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will resume flights to Europe on Tuesday after a break of almost six years -- including a two-year ban due to safety fears -- a spokesman said.

An Airbus 330-200 with room for 222 passengers will take off from Jakarta at 8:40pm (0140 GMT) bound for Amsterdam, airline spokesman Pujobroto said.

"Garuda will resume flights to Europe tonight. We'll serve the route Jakarta to Amsterdam via Dubai," he said.

One of Asia's most successful airlines through the global economic downturn, Garuda has been expanding its routes and buying planes ahead of a planned initial public offering later this year.

The Amsterdam connection is the first Garuda flight to Europe since late 2004 and comes less than a year after European Union regulators cleared it to fly in EU airspace again.

Brussels banned all Indonesian planes from EU airspace in 2007 after a series of crashes and incidents exposed poor safety standards across the Indonesian aviation industry.

"Reopening the flight to Europe is in line with the plan to expand our network. There are also strong historical ties between Indonesia and the Netherlands," Pujobroto said.

Indonesia was a Dutch colony for hundreds of years until it achieved formal independence in 1945.

Pujobroto said Garuda also planned to open routes to Frankfurt, London, Paris and Rome.

Garuda, which posted a net profit of more than 100 million dollars last year, was named the world's most improved airline last month by London-based research company Skytrax.

Its last fatal crash was in Yogyakarta in March 2007, when 21 people were killed.

List of airlines banned within the EU


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