According to sources close to COMAC, Indonesian low-cost carrier, TransNusa, is close to starting its ARJ21 commercial operations, with the potential destination for its first flight being Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
First overseas delivery
TransNusa received its first, and so far only, ARJ21 aircraft on December 18th, 2023; it was also COMAC's first overseas ARJ21 delivery. Moreover, the planned Kuala Lumpur route will also be TransNusa's first international route.
Indonesia's Civil Aviation Authority demands the airliner conducts 100 hours of proving flights before putting a new aircraft type into commercial operation. TransNusa started the proving flight at the end of February, over two months after the delivery.
Although there have been few public reports, sources say that TransNusa has already completed 100 hours of proving flights, including its first visit to Kuala Lumpur on March 6th.
The route between Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur has approximately 40 round trips daily, with almost all airlines from both countries joining the competition. Due to the strong competition, the ticket price for this 2-hour route is regularly lower than US $100. For example, the early morning 5:00 flight of AirAsia is often sold for US $58 (including tax for one-way).
TransNusa's vision for the choice and outlook of ARJ21
Bayu Sutanto, the head of TransNusa, said his team needed a small aircraft to reach certain routes. Therefore, he eventually chose COMAC's ARJ21-700 passenger aircraft.
According to an article published by Indonesia's local media, detikTravel, on February 14th, Bayu Sutanto said,
"We were considering that some of the routes we would develop would also require an aircraft with less capacity than an A320. This type of aircraft is called a regional jet. Therefore, certain routes with less demand still need them. They don't need to be connecting, and the capacity is also not high."
TransNusa plans to conduct shuttle flights with ARJ21 in Indonesia. The concept of shuttle flights is to make it easy for travelers to move from one city to another over short distances. Passengers need to come to the airport, and they can depart immediately.
"In the future, we will go to several cities, and we have plans from Halim to other cities. This is essentially a shuttle flight," said Bayu Sutanto in a conversation with detikTravel on a flight to Denpasar. "So people don't even need to order food; they can just come and go. The frequency of shuttle flights is very high. If the frequency is high, the seating must be reduced. But anytime, people can fly, be it every hour or one and a half hours." he further explained.
Bayu then gave examples of shuttle flights in several countries. He said there are many flights between cities like Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, Hong Kong to Taipei, Beijing to Shanghai, etc.
In addition to domestic flights within Indonesia, TransNusa is also looking to operate international flights. This network will soon connect passengers traveling to Australia to other countries in Asia.
Bayu added.
"In the future, TransNusa will definitely be executing many flights to other routes and international routes. In the near future, we will start flying to Malaysia, that is, flying to Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru. So for our good friends of TransNusa who want to go to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore in a more affordable way through Johor Bahru, we will start these flights in April. Then from June or July, start to other countries, i.e., China, Hong Kong. We will also fly to Australia in August or September, flying to Perth, Darwin, Melbourne, and Sydney,"
TransNusa currently operates a fleet of four Airbus A320 planes and one A320neo plane.
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Sources: detikTravel atdb.aero