Air Transport

Indonesian carrier Batavia Air is adding its first Airbus A330s and will use these for the launch of services to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

Batavia Air president director Yudiawan Tansari says it plans to lease two Airbus A330-200s from International Lease Finance and the first aircraft "we expect to have arrive in late July and the other in October."

In early August the airline plans to launch a five-times-weekly service from Jakarta to Jeddah and when it gets the second aircraft it will look to launch services to another Middle East destination, he says, adding that it is considering Abu Dhabi.

Batavia Air is mostly a domestic carrier but it has international flights to Guangzhou in China and Kuching in Malaysia.

Tansari says its fleet today comprises of six Airbus A320-family aircraft, four Boeing 737-200s and 23 Boeing 737-30/400s.

It is launching services to Jeddah because Indonesia's government is allowing more Indonesian carriers to operate there and it is a good market because of Indonesian Muslims travelling to Mecca, he says.