TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – A low cost airline from South Korea, Jin Air, is ready to fly a wide-body aircraft Boeing 777 to Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, to promote the tourism to that region.

“I already have an official permission from Korean Air Chairman, that Jin Air’s subsidiary is ready to fly Boeing 777 to Lombok,” said Chief Investment Coordination Agency (CICA) Thomas Lembong after the meeting at Kemenko Kemaritiman Jakarta, Monday, April 10, 2017.

Tom, that’s how Thomas being called, said that the existence of low cost airline is very needed to promote the tourism in Indonesia.

He said that even though the tourism investment is not a big investment, but it is very strategic because it opens employment opportunities and produce foreign exchange from tourist arrivals.

“This needs an outstanding teamwork for many tourists who depends on air connectivity. So the connectivity airline is needed, especially a low cost airline so that there are a lot of cheap flights from a lot of destinations such as Korea, China, Japan, Australia, India, and etc”, he explained.

Although the penetration to the low cost airline is needed, Tom said the government must also prepare the supporting infrastructure.

“So, the upgrading is also needed at the airports, even though the runway is already nice, the terminal is already nice, now we must look at the electronic system in navigation system, so that the plane even in a very bad weather it is still can fly”, he said.

Especially in Lombok International Airport (LIA) which will be visited by Jin Air, Tom said that one thing that should be fixed is the modification at the airport so that a plane as big as Boeing 777 can make a U-turn at the end of the runway.

“The space is too narrow, and then as it is told before the navigation system and the radar so that a plane like this even in a bad weather can still fly”, Tom finished.