Indonesia Reopens Flights to Wuhan and Other Chinese Destinations

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – China and Indonesia have resumed operations of commercial flights between the two destinations after almost nine months of suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Indonesia’s Ministry of Transportation said.

A spokesperson for the ministry, Adita Irawati, said all flight routes to Chinese destinations, including Wuhan in Hubei province — the original epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China — have been reopened.

“The flights from and to China, including Wuhan, have resumed operations,” Adita told Kompas.com on Tuesday, September 8.

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However, she said, until now there has not been a single airline that serves the routes to and from Wuhan.

She added that if later Indonesian airlines will serve the routes, they must strictly apply the health protocol stipulated by both Indonesian and Chinese governments.

Various flights to and from other Chinese destinations have already operated, the ministry’s air transport director-general Novie Riyanto said.

“Indonesian scheduled commercial flights have flown to Chengdu [operated by Garuda Indonesia], Kunming [by Citilink], and Hangzhou [by Sriwijaya] as well as Nanning [by Batik],” Novie said.

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Meanwhile, Novie added, the flights to Jakarta from Guangzhou and Shanghai are served by Xiamen Airlines and China Southern, respectively.

The government previously suspended all scheduled commercial flights to and from Wuhan at the end of January 2020 due to the spread of the coronavirus.

(Writer: Rully R. Ramli | Editor: Bambang P. Jatmiko)

Source: https://money.kompas.com/read/2020/09/08/183200126/kemenhub-kembali-membuka-rute-penerbangan-dari-indonesia-ke-wuhan-china.