InJourney Airports Welcomes The Opening Of The Incheon-Batam Jeju Air Flight Route

JAKARTA - PT Angkasa Pura Indonesia or InJourney Airports welcomes the opening of the Incheon-Batam-Incheon international flight route which is operated regularly by airlines from South Korea Jeju Air.

Through the inaugural flight or inaugural flight, Hang Nadim Batam International Airport is officially connected to South Korea via scheduled commercial flights or scheduled commercial flight.

Inaugural flight Jeju Air uses a Boeing 737-800 aircraft with flight number 7C-5301, and lands at Hang Nadim Batam International Airport at 02.20 WIB after departing from Incheon Airport, South Korea, at 22.05 local time.

InJourney Airports President Director Faik Fahmi expressed his enthusiasm and optimism for the opening of this route. This is also a milestone, where Batam is now officially connected to South Korea via regular commercial flights.

"We congratulate you on the opening of the Incheon-Batam-Incheon scheduled international flight route operated by Jeju Air," he said in an official statement, Thursday, October 17.

Jeju Air itself previously served the Incheon-Batam-Incheon flight route in 2023 via charter flights.

According to Faik, the opening of this new flight route will further improve connectivity between Indonesia and South Korea through airports managed by InJourney Airports, which had previously been connected through Tangerang Soekarno-Hatta Airport and Bali's I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport.

"We are also optimistic that the opening of this flight route will also have a positive impact and multiplier effect on tourism, business, industry and the economy in Batam and its surroundings," he said.

Meanwhile, InJourney Airports Technology Strategy and Development Director Ferry Kusnowo said this inaugural flight was an effort to strengthen international aviation connectivity in Indonesia to encourage business growth and tourism in the country.

InJourney Airports encourages the pattern of hub and speech operations to optimize flight contributions. We hope that tourists from South Korea who arrive via Batam can continue their journey to tourist destinations in other cities in the country, through strong flight connectivity at InJourney Airports airports," said Ferry.

Quoted from data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), in the January-August 2024 period as many as 281,000 tourists with South Korean passports visited Indonesia. This number experienced significant growth, which was 28 percent compared to the number of visits in the same period last year, which reached 220 thousand visits.

The number of foreign tourists from South Korea visiting Indonesia until August 2024 also grew by 10 percent compared to the period before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019, which reached 254,000 visits.

The Incheon-Batam-Incheon flight, which is operated regularly by Jeju Air, is scheduled to operate at a frequency of 3 flights each week, and is planned to be four flights per week starting October 27.

The Incheon-Batam route is served every Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday with flight number 7C-5301, departing from Incheon at 21.05 local time, and arriving in Batam at 01.30 WIB the next day.

Sedangkan untuk rute sebaliknya beroperasi setiap Kamis, Jumat, dan Senin dengan nomor penerbangan 7C-5302, dengan waktu keberangkatan dari Batam pada pukul 02.45 WIB, serta tiba di Incheon pada pukul 11.25 waktu setempat.

With the official operation of the Incheon-Batam-Incheon route operated by Jeju Air, it also increases the number of international routes served by Hang Nadim Batam International Airport to 5 routes operated by 4 airlines.

For information, Batam International Airport is operated by PT Batam International Airport (PT BIB) which is a consortium company formed by 3 companies, namely PT Angkasa Pura I which has now joined PT Angkasa Pura II as PT Angkasa Pura Indonesia (InJourney Airports), Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC), and PT Wijaya Karya (Persero) Tbk (WIKA).