Sandiaga Efforts To Direct Flight YIA Airport To Australia

YOGYAKARTA - Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparekraf) Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno seeks to open a direct international flight from Yogyakarta International Airport (YIA) to Australia to increase tourist visits from the country.

"We ask for support from all that we will direct YIA for long-distance flights, so one of the sources of foreign tourists is Australia, there must be a (direct) flight from Australia," Sandiaga said as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, August 29.

Based on the statement by the Deputy Governor of Yogyakarta KGPAA Paku Alam X in the 4th Askernas Asita in Yogyakarta, Sandiaga said flights from YIA were sought to go directly to Perth, Melbourne, and Sydney Airports, Australia.

"The Deputy Governor mentioned Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, so this is what we will try later," he said.

In addition to Australia, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy said that international flights in YIA will also continue to be added, including to the Middle East.

According to him, the Association of Indonesian Travel Companies (Asita) together with a number of airline companies will support the plan.

"In addition to Garuda planes flying directly to Medina, we also see an opportunity for Turkish Air to Istanbul, Qatar to Doha, and also the Emirate to Dubai," Sandiaga said.

From communication with Qatar Airways, Emirates, and Turkish Airlines, Sandiaga said, all of them stated that they were very interested in supporting direct flights to YIA.

"We are working on entering the flight schedule, hopefully before the end of the year (2023) or 2024," he said.

According to the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, the increase in direct flights is expected to increase the utilization or utilization of aircraft in YIA, which has been below 60 percent low.

"We want to increase (utilization) even higher towards 80 percent of the utilization so that this infrastructure will provide more benefits for tourism and the creative economy in Yogyakarta," he said.