JAKARTA - INTERNATIONAL flights are set to resume to and from the Indonesian ancient cultural city of Yogyakarta as South-east Asia's largest economy seeks to boost tourism, an official said on Friday.
The head of Yogyakarta's tourism office, Mr Tazbir, said that flights from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur would be served by Malaysian Airlines and Air Asia, with return trips flown three or four times a week each.
'We are relaunching flights as a part of Visit Indonesia 2008,' he told AFP, referring to the country's new tourism campaign.
The national flag carrier Garuda stopped flying to the city on Java island at the end of 2005 due to a lack of aircraft, shortly before the city and surrounds were hit by an earthquake that killed 6,000 people.
Indonesia, which has endured a series of terror bombings, natural disasters and health scares, recorded a 2.38 percent drop in foreign tourist arrivals to four million in 2006.
Arrivals jumped 14 per cent in the first 11 months of 2007.
About 150,000 of those arrivals were to Yogyakarta, the usual launchpad for tourists visiting the ancient Buddhist temples of Borobudur and the Hindu temples at Prambanan, Mr Tazbir said.
'With international direct flights, we hope to raise the arrival of international tourists by 30 percent this year,' he said.
Malaysian Airlines will begin flying on January 30 while Malaysian budget carrier Air Asia will start its flights two days later, he added.
In March last year, a Garuda jet on a domestic flight burst into flames on landing in Yogyakarta, killing 21 people. -- AFP
