Garuda Passengers to Enjoy Special Maluku Cuisine

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - East bound passengers of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will soon be served with typical Maluku foods.

In a bid to make Garuda Indonesia passengers have a pleasant flight while enjoying special foods from Maluku, the company is currently exploring the possibility of cooperating with the province’s culinary entrepreneurs, capable of supplying local food to be served on Garuda flights.

On June 3, 2010 Garuda resumed its Jakarta-Ambon route with a stopover in Makassar, South Sulawesi. The Jakarta-Makassar-Ambon route is being served with aircraft having a capacity for 14 to 16 business-class seats and 120 economy-class seats.

Garuda Ambon branch manager Hendra Sumarno said in Maluku provincial city of Ambon on Tuesday that the possibility of cooperation with the province’s culinary entrepreneurs was being explored.

"We are currently exploring the possibility of cooperation with culinary entrepreneurs who can produce traditional Maluku dishes for Garuda passengers," Hendra Sumarno said.

Hendra admitted that since Garuda resumed its Jakarta-Ambon route in July last year, he had been thinking about a concept of serving regional typical foods to passengers of the national flag carrier during its flights.

"For several domestic and overseas destinations we serve passengers with some regional typical foods, and for Jakarta-Amsterdam flights we serve them with Javanese typical food namely ’nasi tumpeng’ or rice cone," Hendra said.

In October 2010, Garuda Indonesia in cooperation with the Maluku Culture and Tourism Office also realized Ambon-Amsterdam route by making use of "Family Trip" program.

"The most important thing is the public awareness to maintain the natural beauty of Ambon and its supporting facility to make foreign tourists feel at home," Hendra said.

While for Jakarta-Ambon flights, he said the Garuda passengers were served with Makassar typical food so they wanted to replace it with special cuisine from Maluku.