Garuda Indonesia Boss Great Expectations: Revenue Will Soar When Umrah Flights Open

President Director of Garuda Indonesia, Irfan Setiaputra. (Photo: Doc. Garuda Indonesia)

JAKARTA - The national airline PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk is currently waiting for confirmation regarding the opening of direct Umrah flights from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia. This is because this flight is considered to be increasing revenue considering that the queue for Umrah is already very high.

President Director of Garuda Indonesia, Irfan Setiaputra, said that his party is currently having difficulty projecting the business until the end of the year. Because, there are still a number of things that have not been confirmed, one of which is Umrah flights.

"If we project based on today's conditions, of course it is too conservative. There are several things that we hope for after this Hajj is over (cancelled) and we experience the biggest problem. But the biggest question for us is whether Umrah will really open this October directly from Indonesia?," he said in a virtual press conference, Thursday, August 19.

Umrah flights, said Irfan, will have a positive impact on the Company's financial performance in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Especially since the pandemic the number of Garuda passengers has decreased.

"Once the Umrah (flight) opens, the swing in our income will be quite far, because the queue for this Umrah is already very high," he said.

For your information, Garuda Indonesia recorded a decline in passengers in the first semester of 2021 by 78.81 percent compared to the same period the previous year. The decrease is the impact of the implementation of the Implementation of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM).

"The number of our passengers is around 870,000 compared to 2020, where before the pandemic it decreased by 74.81 percent because the previous year the number of passengers was 3,326,644," he said.

Not only that, said Irfan, the implementation of PPKM in the country also has an impact on the company, where the average number of passengers before PPKM was in the range of 12,000 passengers per day, then during PPKM it fell to 2,000 passengers per day.

"It was much lower before PPKM, but 2,000 is quite great compared to 1 Shawwal 2021 where the number of passengers was only 700," he said.