By Mohd Shukri Ishak
SOLO (CENTRAL JAVA), Sept 23 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Indonesia welcomed Malaysia Airlines’ inaugural service from Kuala Lumpur to Surakarta (Solo) via flight MH849 at the Adi Soemarmo International Airport on Sunday night.
MH849 departed Kuala Lumpur at 8.30 pm (Malaysian time) and arrived in Solo at 10 pm (local time).
Present at the welcome ceremony were Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia, Zainal Abidin Bakar, Malaysia’s director of tourism in Indonesia, Roslan Othman, Country Manager Indonesia for Malaysia Airlines, Muzakir Shah Abdul Rahman and General Manager of the Adi Soemarmo International Airport, Abdullah Usman.
According to Zainal Abidin, the new flight was also in line with the recently-launched Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign, which promotes tourism as a pillar of the Malaysian economy.
“Solo, traditionally known as Surakarta, is the historic royal capital on the Indonesian island of Java. This route will enable closer Indonesian-Malaysian relations, especially in their respective tourism industries,” he said.
Malaysia Airlines Bhd had launched routes to Solo and Pekanbaru in Indonesia on Wednesday (Sept 18) from the KL International Airport, to meet the growing demand for flights between Kuala Lumpur and Indonesia.
Muzakir Shah said it will fly twice weekly using the B737-800 aircraft to the two Indonesian cities, which are the airline’s fifth and sixth Indonesian destinations respectively.
The flight to Solo departs Kuala Lumpur at 8.30 pm and arrives at 10 pm the same day. Its return flight departs Solo at 11.15 pm the same day and arrives back in Kuala Lumpur the next day at 2.55 am.
Meanwhile, the flight to Pekanbaru departs Kuala Lumpur at 7.50 pm and arrives in Pekanbaru at 7.55 pm the same day. Its return leg departs Pekanbaru at 8.55 pm the same day and arrives in Kuala Lumpur at 11.05 pm the same day.
— NNN-BERNAMA