Iran’s Mahan Air Expands Route to Jakarta, Indonesia

Tehran, Iran | April 10, 2009 by D-8 Secretariat

Mahan Air is now connecting more D-8 countries. The Iran's private airlines is opening new route to Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2009

Mahan Air began nonstop service between Tehran and Jakarta the capital city of Indonesia, starting 18 Mar 2009. Mahan will fly the route with its 438-seat Boeing 747-400 aircraft in two-class configuration. The inaugural departure, Flight 5089 will depart Tehran IKA airport at 23:00 on Wednesday 18 Mar and arrive in Jakarta airport at 11:55 on Thursday 19 Mar, a flight lasting approximately 8 hours 25 minutes. The first departure from Jakarta Flight 5090 will depart Jakarta at 23:59 on Thursday 19 Mar and arrive in Tehran IKA airport at 07:00 on Friday 20 Mar, a flight lasting approximately 09 hours 31 minutes. All times are local.

Jakarta will be the 14th international destination served by Mahan from its Tehran hub. The new service is intending to provide convenient connection to many domestic destinations in Indonesia as well as nonstop services beyond Jakarta to Australia.

To support Mahan Air in the opening of the new routeway, the Indonesia NTO and trade went on their first B2B sales mission to Iran last week, with a table top event in Tehran and Isfahan.

The trade is also promoting twin-destination packages with Singapore and Malaysian tour operators.

Department of Culture and Tourism head of promotion - the Middle East, Ms Rita Sofia, said: “We have seen rapid growth of the Iranian market since we started promoting with a cultural mission in 2006 and granted visa-on-arrival to Iranians.”

Within a year, Indonesia received around 4,000 arrivals from Iran, and this leapt to more than 7,000 last year.

Jakarta will be the 14th international destination served by Mahan from its Tehran hub

Ms Sofia said Saudi Arabia was the biggest producer for Indonesia from the Middle East, but Iran is expected to become a key source of the 50,000 Middle East arrivals target this year.

Vayatour Bali director, Mr Hanafi Sastrawisata, said: “We initially get our Iranian contacts and businesses at the Arabian Travel Market. Vayatour also hosted the first charter flight from Iran to Bali by Iran Air in 2007 with about 400 passengers.”

Marintur Indonesia managing director, Ms Hasiyanna Ashadi, said: “We have seen good growth from the market in the last two years, from 1,000 people in 2007 to about 1,500 people last year.

“This is without any direct flights from Iran to Indonesia.

“In fact, we have not seen the financial crisis impacting the market as, in January alone, we received some 20 group bookings for 2009, with 15 to 20 people, and some even up to 40 people per group, staying five and 12 nights.”

Mahan Air’s charter flights to Indonesia should deliver more traffic to the country, Ms Ashadi said.

She added: “We have also been approached by Malaysian operators to promote the two destinations in one, and we are happy to do that.”

Iranian travellers like to visit Jakarta and Bali, but the Indonesian NTO and trade have started to promote other destinations such as Jogjakarta, North Sulawesi and West Sumatera.

D-8 Secretary General, Dipo Alam, encourages the civil aviation authorities of the memberstates to develop detailed program and plan to boost the involvement of private sectors in the airlines, and airport construction business. Besides of cooperation such as done by Mahan Air, he also brought to mind the model of cooperation betewen Malaysia’s AirAsia, that worked with the Islamic Development Bank, Gulf-linked Crescent Venture Partners and Deucalion Capital, a Frankfurt-based global private equity fund to help finance the purchase and lease of 11 Boeing 737-300 aircraft.

“These are potentials sectors to work on, considering that we have a very huge potentials in terms of our population that use aviation service for massive purposes, such as for umrah, and hajj” he said in his office. He also underlined the growing importances of air-cargo for export/import, and the migrant workers who are frequently using the service of civil aviation. “To support all of these, of course we should also develop programs of passenger safety, pilot and staffs trainings, especially for aircraft and airport maintanance,” he added.

In the succesfully held Third D-8 Working Group on Civil Aviation and Director Generals’ Meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on 17-18 June 2008, D-8 Organization revealed that it seeks to strengthen cooperation in the field of Civil Aviation as it would help to increase the economic and social conditions of the D-8 people. Dipo Alam said that the D-8 cooperation in this field was in line with strong commitment from each memberstates to enhance the safety, security and services of the civil aviation in order to meet the requirement set by the International standard. He also said that D-8 was very pleased to have the THY Chairman of the Board in the 3rd DGCA Working Group, Mr. Candan Karlitekin, who provided a very interesting presentation on how the Turkish THY has succeeded in its domestic and international competition, as a study case for the rest of civil aviation industries in the D-8 countries. “It is a must that we have to learn from the Turkish story to lead our D-8 aviation industries into a healthy competition environment and beneficial privatization,” Alam added. He also said that the development from Mahan Air is very encouraging, and reminded the member countries to actively participate in the upcoming D-8 DGCA Meeting some time in August 2009.

Read Also

• Turkish TAV Eyes to Invest on Jakarta and Bali Airport Development
• THY Gears Up to Re-Open Direct Line to Jakarta, Indonesia
• D-8 Hails The Opening Flight Of Turkish Airlines Istanbul-Jakarta
• Turkey expands flight scope
• Indonesia and Turkey will cooperate to produce airplanes and helicopters
• Indonesia to Host the 3rd Working Group on Civil Aviation and Directors Generals Meeting
• Indonesia’s Economy Expands at Fastest Pace in a Year
• D-8 current Chairman, President Yudhoyono of Indonesia, visits Iran: Enhancing Economic Cooperation
• Iran and Indonesia Call for Mutual Cooperation in Fight against Corruption
• Ankara University’s Civil Aviation Program to Train Foreign Pilots