TransNusa CEO Francis said the Airbus A320 aircraft would be used to operate the route, with two round-trip flights daily from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur and vice versa. — Bloomberg
PETALING JAYA: Indonesia-based PT TransNusa Aviation Mandiri (TransNusa) will transition to an international commercial airline on April 14 when it makes its inaugural flight on the Jakarta – Kuala Lumpur route.
TransNusa group chief executive officer Datuk Bernard Francis said the Airbus A320 aircraft would be used to operate the route, with two round-trip flights daily from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur and vice versa.
“Flights will be departing from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur at 7am as well as 4:50pm whilst, in Kuala Lumpur, flights will be departing to Jakarta daily at 10:40am and 8:35pm, with competitive prices starting from as low as RM299,” he said during a virtual media briefing.
Francis stressed that TransNusa’s passengers would have a chance to enjoy full-fledged airline facilities and services with competitive pricing, free baggage of between 15kg and 30kg, comfortable leg room space, as well as unlimited flight changes, depending on the chosen bundle.
“TransNusa’s A320s are configured with between 168 and 174 seats and provide a 76cm to 79cm legroom space, like a full-fledged airline,” he said.
Apart from that, he pointed out that passengers would arrive at the international terminal of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta, to enjoy quality services offered at the terminal.
“Even though TransNusa provides all the premium airline services for its passengers, as far as pricing is concerned, it is low and very competitive,” he added.
Francis said travellers on TransNusa would depart from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, but it has plans for a direct flight from the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (Subang airport) to Jakarta.
TransNusa started sales for its Jakarta –Kuala Lumpur route since March 17.
Commenting on the sales performance, Francis said: “We opened without much awareness and marketing. Despite that, we have already sold about 800 seats in the past four days.”
Separately, in a statement, the airline operator said its attraction to Malaysia stemmed from the fact that there were 2.4 million people travelling this route annually.
Despite a 40% decline in the frequency of travellers using this route due to the pandemic, TransNusa expects the demand to remain high and it planned to offer more comfortable travel packages to complement the demand of passengers travelling to its home base.
According to Francis, TransNusa is also in the midst of getting approvals to fly from Johor Baru.
“We hope that in the next two weeks, we will get the approval,” Francis said, adding that the group is likely to start operations in Johor Baru by early-June.
Currently, the 15-year-old TransNusa, which has bases in Bali and Jakarta, owns and operates four aircraft.
According to Francis, the group plans to increase its fleet to six aircraft within the next six months.
