Palu, C Sulawesi (ANTARA News) - Central Sulawesi`s provincial government welcomes the reopening of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia`s Jakarta-Palu route, a local official said.

The provincial government hopes Garuda`s regular flights to and from Palu will help increase foreign tourist arrivals in the province, Central Sulawesi Tourism Office chief Suaib Djafar said here Saturday.

He said the reopening of Garuda`s Jakarta-Palu route would also facilitate the local people to travel to other parts of the country and abroad.

Djafar said Garuda was the fourth airline to open a regular air service to and from Palu after Merpati Nusantara Airlines, Batavia Air, and Sriwijaya Air.

He added that Central Sulawesi had a lot of interesting and unique places for tourists to visit but the problem was that road access to those places had yet to be made more convenient.

Garuda conducted its first flight on its reopened Jakarta-Palu route on Thursday, July 1, 2010.

Local Garuda Manager Moh Yunus said here on Friday a significant number of passengers was on the first flight to Palu on Thursday.

Yunus did not go into detail of the specific number of passengers, but said the air transportation business in the country at present was quite promising.

He said following the reopening of the Garuda route to Palu, it was expected that both domestic and foreign investors would be more interested in investing in Central Sulawesi province.

"With the reopening of the Garuda route, we hope more domestic and foreign tourists will visit the province and more investors will operate here," Yunus said.

According to him, the more air line service, the more people will travel with air transportation.

He added that Garuda aircraft Boeing 737-400 with 134 seats for business and economic class would make return lights every day from Jakarta to Palu.

(O001/F001/S026)

Editor: Suryanto
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