Pelita Air to start flying between Jakarta, Singapore from Aug 18

[SINGAPORE] Indonesian carrier Pelita Air will be commencing flights between Jakarta and Singapore from Aug 18, indicated the airline’s website.

This marks the first venture into the international market for Pelita, which has been serving domestic routes in Indonesia, its home base.

The Business Times earlier reported that the airline will likely be taking over Jetstar Asia’s check-in premises at Terminal 4, after the exit of the Qantas-owned budget carrier, and will use Sats as its ground handler and inflight caterer.

The passage between Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and Singapore’s Changi Airport was the eighth-busiest international route in the world in 2024, according to data from flight analytics platform OAG. Passenger traffic on the route grew 4 per cent compared to 2023, though it was still 26 per cent down from 2019, before the Covid pandemic.

The daily flight from Jakarta will leave at 7.10am local time and land in Singapore at 10am, according to Pelita’s website. The return flight will leave Singapore at 11am and reach Jakarta at 11.50am local time.

Pelita Air owns 13 Airbus A320 aircraft, alongside three ATR 72s and one ATR 42. Delays in delivery of six A320s have resulted in the carrier expecting only four of those planes this year, said a February report by Jakarta’s Bisnis.

The airline was initially formed in 1970 by Indonesian oil and natural gas giant Pertamina. It provided air links to the state-owned company’s various oil and gas drilling locations across Indonesia. It then became a charter operator, but relaunched scheduled flights in 2022 after 17-year hiatus.

Today, it serves 17 domestic destinations including Jakarta, Kendari and Sorong, indicated its website.