Airline planning to expand Davao-Manado route: exec

THE AIRLINE that will service the flight between the city and Manado in Indonesia has looked at expanding the route to include another destination, an official of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) said Wednesday.

At the Wednesdays @ Habi at Kape – Abreeza, Eamarie M. Gilayo, in charge of International Relations Divisions-Transport Connectivity and Trade Facilitation at MinDA, said that the Jakarta-based Garuda Airlines is considering to expand its flight to include tourist destination Bali.

“We are looking at the triangular tourism perspective,” she explained, pointing out that travelers among the destinations will have easier access to all of them and other nearby tourism areas. In the case of the city, Indonesian tourists can also visit other tourist destinations in Mindanao, she explained.

Gilayo added the shipping linkage between Bitung, Indonesia and the city and the nearby General Santos City will also complement the air linkage. “Entrepreneurs would need a faster service (compared with the shipping system which will bring their cargoes between the destinations,” she explained.

In resuming the sea route, a shipping company has decided to use smaller vessels as Gilayo pointed out that Indonesian companies that are into manufacturing of construction materials have decided to tap the route so they could sell their products in Mindanao.

Recently, members of the business sector of the destinations decided to discuss the possibility of how they can help sustain both the sea and the air linkages.

The last air route was being serviced in 2012 by Wings Air, another Indonesian airline company, but the service was eventually shut down because of the lack of traffic.