SilkAir, the regional wing of Asian carrier Singapore Airlines, will launch direct air services between Singapore and Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from November 25, 2013, increasing its Indonesian network to 12 destinations. Subject to regulatory approvals, the flights will operate three times weekly on Monday, Friday and Sunday and will be operated using Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft, featuring both Business and Economy Class cabins.
The confirmation of the new link to Yogyakarta, the capital of the Yogyakarta Special Region in Java, and a centre for classical Javanese culture and fine art, follows the recent launch of SilkAir flights to Semarang from July 29, 2013 and Makassar from August 1, 2013 and will reinforce connectivity between Indonesia and Singapore.
“As the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, SilkAir is well placed to develop the rising demand of air travel in this important Indonesian market.”
Leslie Thng
Chief Executive Officer, SilkAir
SilkAir first began operations to Indonesia in August 1992 and has steadily strengthened its network over the years. It currently has 70 flights per week serving eleven destinations in the country, namely Balikpapan, Bandung, Lombok, Manado, Makassar, Medan, Palembang, Pekanbaru, Semarang, Solo and Surabaya. “As the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, SilkAir is well placed to develop the rising demand of air travel in this important Indonesian market,” said Leslie Thng, chief executive officer, SilkAir.
The Singaporean carrier will compete directly with AirAsia Indonesia on the link between Singapore and Yokyakarta as well as Tiger Airways which launched its own daily service on the route from July this year. In 2012 an estimated 156,000 bi-directional O&D passengers flew between the two destinations. This represented a 5.5 per cent increase on the traffic levels the previous year. Despite the services of Air Asia Indonesia a notable number of passengers, estimated at around 22 per cent of the total traffic, flew on indirect services between the two destinations.
With the world famous Borobudur and Prambanan temples in close proximity, Yogyakarta offers a variety of natural attractions and sightseeing opportunities within and beyond the city and as such SilkAir expects demand to be dominated by leisure travellers, although it believes business demand will be sufficient to help it boost yields. The flight has been scheduled to provide connection options beyond Singapore through the joint Singapore Airlines – SilkAir network.
In 2012 an estimated 5.73 million bi-directional O&D passengers flew between destinations in Singapore and Indonesia, up 13.3 per cent versus the previous year with strong growth across all top ten Indonesian markets from/to Singapore Changi, most notably Pekanbaru (up 63.0 per cent) and Bandung (up 101.3 per cent).
Over the past five years total point-to-point air traffic demand between Singapore and Indonesia has almost doubled from 2.93 million passengers in 2007 to 5.73 million last year. The growth in low-cost air travel across Asia has certainly played a major role in developing this market with AirAsia Indonesia holding a dominant 23.3 per cent share of the demand last year, followed by Singapore Airlines (17.0 per cent), Lion Air (15.5 per cent), Garuda Indonesia (14.0 per cent), Valuair (7.1 per cent) and then SilkAir (6.8 per cent).
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