Indonesia aviation industry welcomes Pacific Royale Airways as new full-service player

Indonesia’s Pacific Royale Airways is set to launch next month as a full-service carrier operating on domestic as well as international routes, a segment that is currently dominated by national airline Garuda Indonesia as reported by TTG Asia.

Pacific Royale Airways CEO Samudra Sukardi -the former Vice President of the Garuda Indonesia Group- said: “Our mission at Pacific Royale Airways is to enter Indonesia’s market to address the public concerns in flight safety, punctuality and good services.”

Due to receive its Air Operator’s Certificate in mid-March, the airline has so far been granted approval to launch routes from four Indonesian hubs including Bandung, Surabaya and Jakarta, and to operate 62 domestic and 11 international city pairs. International destinations such as Mumbai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur are on the cards. They will be based in Jakarta with branches in Surabaya, Batam and Medan. Those three cities will form a connective network of connections to several cities in the vicinity.

Domestic operations will start with two Airbus A320-200 aircrafts, while two Fokker 50 planes will be deployed to serve feeder destinations within the country. Three additional Fokker 50s and two more Airbus A320s will arrive in May, with an Airbus A330 aircraft scheduled to arrive by year-end.

Seriousness in the premium class is shown by the work with entertainment and communications design firm from the United States, Lumexis Corporation. In addition, Pacific Royale Airways has also partnered with Abacus International to handle information technology, especially in Internet-based ticketing system, which will allow travel consultants within the Abacus network to access its published fares and inventory.

“As we plan to operate domestic flights and potential international flights to Asia, we hope to leverage on Abacus’ network to drive sales and yield,” explained Samudra.

Pacific Royale Airways’ Chairman, Tarun Trikha said they were optimistic the passenger market in Indonesia is on the rise. "We will take the upper middle class market big enough. Indonesia is the most populous country after China, India, and the United States. Growth upper middle class is quite high," said Tarun.