The national airline Garuda Indonesia on Saturday (30/10), inaugurated a cargo-only flight route service for Makassar (UPG) – Hong Kong (HKG) which is directly connected to cargo flights from Surabaya. During the operation of the flight, Garuda Indonesia transported at least 12 tons of South Sulawesi's leading commodity in the form of live grouper which was flown in with the Airbus A330-300 aircraft. The Makassar - Hong Kong cargo-only flight route service is a development of the Surabaya - Hong Kong route which has been served since early 2021 and is part of the effort to expand the cargo flight network to support increasing the competitiveness of national leading export commodities, especially the Eastern Indonesia region which is known for its superiority. marine product commodities. Furthermore, this Makassar - Hong Kong cargo flight is the second cargo-only flight to be served from Makassar after previously the Makassar - Singapore route was inaugurated in 2020.

The CEO of Garuda Indonesia, Irfan Setiaputra, said that the expansion of connectivity for this cargo-only flight could be one of the business opportunities that will continue to be optimized in line with the growing trend of cargo transportation needs. With the development of this cargo flight network, we hope that direct export activities of superior commodities from the Eastern Indonesia region can increase so that they can support efforts to accelerate national economic recovery.

“Makassar as an aviation hub in eastern Indonesia has a strategic location as a gathering point for cargo commodity delivery networks in Eastern Indonesia which are connected by direct flights to several regions producing leading national export commodities such as Ambon, Kendari, Sorong to Manado. Hopefully, the development of this cargo flight service can optimize the distribution of national superior products, especially in facilitating the delivery of marine products from South Sulawesi to be sent directly to export destination countries. In the future, we hope that this direct flight will make a positive contribution to increasing the competitiveness of the quality of superior maritime commodity products in South Sulawesi through shorter delivery times so that the quality of the products carried will be more maintained and of course with more competitive logistics costs. Thus, the prices of export commodities can become more competitive in the global market,” said Irfan.

This cargo-only flight for the Makassar - Hong Kong route from Surabaya is served once a week and departs from Juanda International Airport (SUB) at 05.00 WIB and arrives at Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport at 07.35 WITA and continues the journey at 09.15 WITA to arrive in Hong Kong at 07.35 WITA. 13.50 local time.

Irfan explained that in line with the company's efforts to optimize the cargo business line as a revenue generator focus during the current Covid-19 pandemic, throughout 2021, until September Garuda Indonesia recorded the total tonnage of cargo transportation to Hong Kong reaching 807 tons or growing 300 percent. compared to the same period in the previous year. "Along with the increasing trend of national export growth as recorded by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) throughout 2021, of course, Garuda Indonesia as a flag carrier is always committed to continuing to optimize the connectivity of the international cargo flight network to support export activities of leading commodities and SMEs through activities direct call to revive the national economy," concluded Irfan.

In line with efforts to develop a logistics flight network from the Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku, and Papua (Kasulampua) regions, previously Garuda Indonesia has also flown special cargo flights on the Surabaya - Banjarmasin - Balikpapan route with a frequency of 6 times per week using the B737-800NG fleet where the average transportation of hatching eggs and general cargo commodities reaches 13.5 tons on each flight.