Garuda Indonesia’s low-cost carrier Citilink has temporarily postponed its inaugural flight to the town of Tanjung Redeb in East Kalimantan province, citing a change in plan with regards to aircraft type.

Citilink has postponed its inaugural flight to Tanjung Redeb’s Raja Alam International Airport, otherwise known as Kalimarau Airport, to mid-July, Bambang Hartato, head of the Kalimarau Airport organizing unit (UPBU), says in a statement. The airline had earlier announced the service would start 1 June.

Citilink postponed the launch because it plans to use Airbus A320s instead of the ATR 72s on the route as earlier planned, he adds.

Lion Air’s Wings Air has five flights daily and one flight daily to Raja Alam International Airport from Sepinggan Airport and Samarinda Airport respectively using ATR 72s, according to the airline’s booking engine. Sepinggan Airport is the main airport for the city of Balikpapan and Samarinda Airport is based at and serves the city of the name.

Hartato says Wings Air is enjoying 100% load factor on the routes.

Smart Aviation Asia Pacific previously reported on 27 May that the local government had called on other airlines to serve Raja Alam International Airport to counter Wings Air’s monopoly.

It is unclear which city Citilink will be serving Tanjung Redeb from, as the new air service has yet to be loaded into Citilink’s booking engine.

 

Picture Source: airfleets.net (Pascal Simon)

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