President Director Of Garuda Indonesia Believes Opening Special Cargo Flights Denpasar-Narita Japan Can Improve Export Commodity Competitiveness

JAKARTA - PT Garuda Indonesia (GIAA) has officially started serving special cargo flights from Denpasar to Narita which will be connected directly to cargo flights from Manado.

On the inaugural special flight service on Wednesday, February 2, Garuda Indonesia transported at least 17 tons of Bali's leading commodities, namely fishery products, especially tuna and ornamental fish, and other general cargo with the A330-300 fleet which has a transport capacity of up to 40 tons on each flight.

Garuda Indonesia President Director Irfan Setiaputra said that the Denpasar-Narita special route flight service is a development of the Manado-Narita route which has been served since late 2020 and is a form of Garuda Indonesia's commitment to support the competitiveness of national superior commodities, especially Eastern Indonesia and its surroundings known for its superior marine products.

"In the midst of various performance recovery measures that we are currently intensifying, the development of the cargo business line is a business focus that we continue to optimize, especially in serving the needs of the community," Irfan said in a written statement, quoted Thursday, February 3.

Irfan said, as is known, Japan is known as one of the countries with the largest tuna export destinations in the world. Of course, this makes Bali have a very strategic role in the export of national fishery commodities, considering that Bali is one of the largest tuna producers in Indonesia.

"We hope that the opening of the Denpasar-Narita special cargo flight service can make a positive contribution to increasing the competitiveness of the quality of export commodity products with a faster delivery process via air cargo," added Irfan.

Meanwhile, the Governor of Bali, Wayan Koster welcomed and appreciated the opening of a special cargo flight from Denpasar to Narita by Garuda Indonesia considering that exports of local Balinese products, especially to Japan, could be carried out optimally.

"The potential for exports of agricultural, fishery and local industrial products from Bali Branding is quite high and is in great demand by overseas buyers. For this reason, support from all parties, including Garuda Indonesia, is needed, especially in facilitating logistics so that these products have high competitiveness and can reach the market buyer on time," said Koster.