GARUDA FROM EAST INDONESIA TO EUROPE

Kupang, NTT, May 3 (ANTARA) - Indonesia's flag-carrier airline company Garuda Indonesia (GIA) will be constantly increasing its flight frequency to the eastern Indonesian provinces in an attempt to support Garuda's long-term work plan on flying to Europe.

"Indonesia's eastern provinces are rich with potential tourist objects and destinations which Garuda can offer to the countries in Europe, and in this way it is expected that European tourists will be increasingly interested in going those parts of Indonesia.

This is a very lucrative line of business," Garuda's commercial director Agus Supriyanto said here over the weekend.

He made the statement as soon as a Garuda plane landed at Kupang's El Tari airport Friday afternoon to serve the Kupang-Denpasar-Surabaya-Jakarta-Yogyakarta route since the company abandoned the East Nusa Tenggara air space in the 1980s.

Starting next year, Supriyanto said, Garuda Indonesia will fly to all countries in Europe, and starting in 2011 will start flying to the United States, and constantly increased its flights to Australia with a view to presuading more foreign tourists to Indonesia's eastern provinces.***3***