A new LCC link to Jakarta

BANGKOK, 10 August 2012: Mandala Airlines, a low-cost carrier from Indonesia started a daily Jakarta-Bangkok service today.

Bangkok is Mandala’s third regional destination after Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and it is now the fourth carrier operating on the route apart from Thai Airways International, Garuda Indonesia and Indonesia AirAsia.

Thai AirAsia is supposed to start serving the Bangkok-Jakarta in October which will intensify competition even further.

Using an A320 aircraft, the Mandala flight departs from Jakarta at 0800 and from Bangkok at 1225.

Mandala Airlines, established since 1969, resumed services 5 April after being grounded last year due to debt problems. It has re-position itself as a partner airline of Tiger Airways, using Tiger Airways for sales and distribution, planning, marketing and procurement.

Tiger Airways holds a 33% stake in the airline, while Indonesia’s Saratoga Group retains 51%.

Mandala Airlines currently operates a fleet of three Airbus A320 planes. It is expected to increase its fleet to 10 by 2013 in compliance with Indonesian regulations that require new airlines to have a fleet of at least 10 aircraft within its first year of operations.

According to the Immigration Bureau’s statistics, there were 38,461 Indonesians visiting Thailand during the first half of this year, dropping 3.11% year on year. Comparing 2011 and 2012, tourism from Indonesia grew impressively around 30%.