Jakarta Halim Airport re-opening frees Soekarno-Hatta slots for Citilink, Garuda, AirAsia, Lion Air

Jakarta's old airport Halim has re-opened to scheduled commercial passenger jet flights, slightly relieving congestion at constrained Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta. Garuda budget subsidiary Citilink became on 10-Jan-2014 the first of at least four major Indonesian carriers to launch flights from Halim, with eight frequencies on four domestic routes.

Garuda, Indonesia AirAsia and Lion Air are also preparing to launch flights from Halim within the next couple of months. Lion initially planned to move the Jakarta operation of new full-service subsidiary Batik Air from Soekarno-Hatta to Halim but in a change of strategy has instead decided to move select Lion Air-operated frequencies on major trunk routes.

Garuda and AirAsia are also expected to use Halim for some frequencies on domestic trunk routes. An overwhelming majority of flights will remain at Soekarno-Hatta, which is now operating at levels nearly three times its designed capacity, as there is only room at Halim for limited commercial operations.