JAKARTA, Feb 17 (NNN-ANTARA) – A Singapore Airlines flight, landed on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali for the first time, since the country closed international borders to tourism in Mar, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, an official said yesterday.
Flight SQ938 took off from Singapore’s Changi Airport and landed at Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, carrying 156 passengers, including 109 foreigners, said Nia Niscaya, deputy for marketing of Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.
“This will increase the accessibility of foreign tourists to Indonesia, especially to Bali, and is expected to encourage the recovery of the national economy, through the tourism sector,” Niscaya added.
Singapore Airlines’ general manager for Indonesia, Alvin Seah, said that, the airline operates seven Singapore-Bali flights a week with Boeing 787-10 aircraft with a seating capacity of 337.
“We hope that the situation in Indonesia will continue to improve and remain under control, so that the tourism industry will recover,” Seah said.
It is the first foreign commercial airline to have activated flights to Bali, in the last two years, although the resort island officially reopened to international tourists in Oct, 2021.
State airline, Garuda Indonesia, started activating international flight routes to Bali, by carrying 12 passengers from Tokyo’s Narita Airport on Feb 3.– NNN-ANTARA
