Looking to harness Timor Leste’s potential, budget airline Citilink has opened up a new route between Denpasar to Dili in cooperation with Air Timor.
The first flight kicked off on Monday and the company will run the scheduled charter flight three times per week using Boeing 737-500 jets, reports the Jakarta Post.
“One of the reasons we chose to open a route to Timor Leste is to try and tap into unrealized markets,” Citilink’s vice president of corporate communications Benny Butarbutar told the Jakarta Post.
Air Timor’s deputy chief operating officer Andisuari Dewi says flights to Bali are full, but flights to Dili have an average load factor of about 50 percent, as Dili is still developing its tourism infrastructure—meaning now’s probably the time to go if you want to experience Timor before it gets built up so much.
“If we are talking tourism, tourism in Timor is still very low. Tourism only made up around 5 percent of our load factor this past year. The rest is mostly business and government,” Dewi told Jakarta Post.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
