Indonesia seeks direct flights by Indian carriers

Indonesia today pitched for direct flight connectivity from India to support the rising outbound tourist traffic as no Indian carrier flies to the Southeast Asian country presently.

Indonesia's national carrier Garuda started operations to Mumbai from 2016, ambassador of Indonesia to India Sidharto Reza Soryodipuro said.

"There is a need to enhance air connectivity between the two countries. Although Indonesia has flights into India, no Indian carriers fly to that country", he said at a session at the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) here today.

He said that this was necessary to support the rising number of Indian tourists travelling to that country. Last year, nearly five lakh Indian tourists visited Indonesia.

Soryodipuro also said that there was zero maritime connectivity between India and Indonesia. Indian ships go either via Singapore, Malaysia or Sri Lanka.

Since there is no direct shipping connectivity, time taken for sending cargo is more and is also expensive.

"There was scope for enhancing both maritime and flight connectivity to boost economic and trade ties between the two countries," he said.