Makassar Opens Up To More Flights from Singapore

Located in South Sulawesi, Indonesia is the city of Makassar. Formerly known as Ujang Pandang (from 1979 to 1999),  Makassar is the capital of South Sulawesi province of Indonesia and also the largest city on the Sulawesi Island.   Check out our destination story of Makssar from last year.

Garuda Indonesia was the only airline offering direct flights between Singapore and Makassar from 1 June 2011. In July last year, the Indonesian carrier added Balikpapan as a stopover to the route operating four-times weekly flights on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday on its Boeing 737-500 aircraft. The aircraft accommodates 12 passengers in Executive class and 84 in Economy.  Balikpapan is a seaport city, well-positioned as a business hub with a variety of offerings for both the corporate and leisure travellers.  The airline has seen a significant rise in domestic demand for air travel between Makassar and Balikpapan.

Nicodemus Lampe, Vice President, Area Asia, Garuda Indonesia shared with us is thoughts about the route opening up to SilkAir and AirAsia “We’ve seen strong demand and fast-growing passenger traffic between Singapore and Makassar in both leisure and business segments which indicates the growing importance of Makassar as a key corporate and leisure destination.  Having more airlines means more competition but we see it as a good thing.  For passengers, they have more choices and air travel is becoming more affordable.”

“As the national carrier of Indonesia, we enjoy a dominant position and are confident that with our latest service and product developments, we will be able to capture a larger share of the market, in line with our five-year ‘Quantum Leap’ strategy of becoming one of the most profitable airlines in Asia,” adds Nicodemus.

GA 849 departs Singapore at 2.05pm via Balikpapan arriving in Makassar at 6.50pm while GA 848 departs Makassar at 8.40am arriving in Singapore at 12.55pm.

We understand that Garuda Indonesia has plans to introduce more routes from Singapore this year which they will announce in the coming months as it expects continued strong air traffic flow between Indonesia and one of Garuda’s key hub outside Indonesia, Singapore.

Another Indonesian carrier Lion Air also flies to Makassar via Surabaya and Jakarta.

This year, the route opens up to two more airlines flying direct from Singapore – AirAsia in July and SilkAir in August.

AirAsia will operate four times weekly flights between Singapore and Makassar from 1 July 2013 on its Airbus A320 with a capacity of 180 seats.

We checked with Logan Velaitham, CEO of AirAsia in Singapore whether he felt there was enough volume for more carriers to offer this route even though the other carriers were not flying direct flights.

“Yes definitely, especially since AirAsia is now the only low-cost airline flying the Singapore-Makassar route. The new route will no doubt be beneficial for the consumers because we’re providing them with additional flight options that offer low fares. The route launch also further underlines AirAsia’s commitment to develop Makassar as a hub, which means that our customers can now choose to land in Makassar and pick a second destination to fly to within Indonesia, from there. We’ve always been pioneers in building the aviation space in developing markets – some examples include Miri, Yogyakarta and Bandung – where we were the first airline to enter the market with flights in and out of the cities. We’re doing the same for Makassar and are confident that our entrance will help develop the market further” shared Logan.

AirAsia is offering promotional fares from as low as S$65 from now till 16 June for travel between 1 July to 15 August 2013.

SilkAir will also introduce direct flights to Makassar from 1 August 2013 on its Airbus A319 or A320 aircraft which can carry 128 to 150 passengers. It will operate thrice weekly flights.

MI142 departs Singapore every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 8.05am arriving in Makassar at 11.15am. MI141 departs Makassar at 12.05pm arriving in Singapore at 3pm.

As the largest city in East Indonesia and the primary port and airline hub of the eastern archipelago, Makassar holds much potential in terms of leisure and business traffic for SilkAir. SilkAir believes Makassar can offer much more as it continues to develop economically. SilkAir currently operates flights to nine Indonesian destinations and is in a good position to help foster this growth.

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Adrian Eugene Seet, editor of SUPERADRIANME.com, has long shared his passion for travel, destinations, and air travel. His childhood love for exploration has evolved into a thriving career, with his engaging content inspiring others to discover new cultures. Taiwan is his new-found favourite destination, and he dreams of visiting the Andes. Adrian's work is driven by his curiosity for travel trends and a commitment to lifelong learning.

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