TransNusa will Fly Comac ARJ21 to Labuan Bajo

TheIndonesia.co - The management of the TransNusa airline has prepared Comac ARJ21 type aircraft to assist community services in a number of regencies/ cities in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province.

"We have prepared a new aircraft after this Airbus, namely the Comac ARJ21. It will operate in the second half of 2022, but only for a few cities in NTT because it is a jet aircraft," said General Manager of Operations for TransNusa Airline Heru Tri Perwiranto to reporters at Kupang when landed at Kupang El Tari Airport with an Airbus aircraft, Thursday afternoon, February 3, 2022.

Heru Tri Perwiranto conveyed this considering that it has been almost a year since TransNusa has closed all of its routes in NTT due to the COVID-19 pandemic so that the people of NTT only depend on two ATR aircraft of Lion Air and Citilink which only go to a few areas. Heru said that the Chinese-made Comac ARJ21 aircraft purchased by Indonesia would only serve the NTT region such as Labuan Bajo, Maumere, and also Tambolaka in Southwest Sumba.

"Of course, only airports that have long runways that can be landed by the Comac ARJ21 type aircraft," he added as quoted by Antara.

Furthermore, he said, the ATR-type aircraft that have been serving flights in the NTT region connecting one area to another is no longer used. According to him, the management removed the ATR aircraft type from their business plan, so that for the first time TransNusa only focuses on Airbus and then the Comac type aircraft.

Furthermore, TransNusa is also expected to help connect tourist areas in the NTT region such as Labuan Bajo, Sumba island, and Flores island through Maumere, Sikka district.

Previously, Head of the NTT Transportation Service, Ishak Nuka, said that the return of TransNusa in NTT after being out of operation would certainly make the NTT people feel happy. Therefore, he hopes that the TransNusa airline will return to serving inter-regional flight routes within the island-based province.

"We hope that TransNusa can re-operate ATR aircraft for inter-regional routes in NTT," he said.