National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia expects a surge in passengers from China after the opening of the airline's third sales office in Beijing on Thursday, the Jakarta Post quoted an executive as saying on Friday.

"Our new office in Beijing has just opened and we put a strong Indonesian atmosphere in the office to attract more passengers," Garuda's senior public relations manager Ikhsan Rosan said.

Since the company first entered the Chinese market in 2002 with flights from Jakarta to Guangzhou, it has expanded its service to five flights per week on the Jakarta-Beijing route and to seven flights per week on the Jakarta-Guangzhou and Jakarta-Shanghai routes each, as of today.

Garuda aims to expand its Jakarta-Beijing service to daily, Ikhsan said.

Before opening offices in Beijing, Garuda's sales offices were only in Shanghai and Canton.

According to the company's data, Garuda Indonesia transported nearly 235,000 passengers on the routes between Indonesia and China throughout last year, a 11.9 percent increase compared to the some 210,000 passengers it carried in 2010.

In addition, the opening of the third sales office was part of Garuda's plan to open new routes connecting Indonesian and Chinese cities.

Source:chinesestock