Garuda Indonesia has indefinitely suspended its daily service between Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta via Singapore, with the carrier offering refunds to customers who booked flights during the suspension period.
"We suspended the aircraft (for the flight to and from Ho Chi Minh City) because we have higher demand in the domestic market. So, we are using the aircrafts for the domestic sector," said Syamsul Adnan, general manager, Garuda Indonesia in Vietnam
Adnan expects the airline to resume service to Ho Chi Minh City in 2010, when the airline receives more aircrafts from Boeing.
Meanwhile, other carriers such as AirAsia and Trans Air have announced air services to Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang respectively this December.
Effective December 3, AirAsia will launch direct daily flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Phuket. Flight FD 3964 from Phuket leaves at 1920 with arrival at Ho Chi Minh City at 2110. The return flight FD 3965 leaves 2140 and arrives in Phuket at 2335.
Also this coming month, Taiwan-based Trans Air will start operating a twice-weekly Taipei-Da Nang service, using an Airbus A321.Trans Air becomes the second foreign carrier to operate at Da Nang International Airport. Currently, SilkAir runs three flights a week to Da Nang.
For more information, visit www.garuda-indonesia.com
Jarrel Tan
