DENPASAR (indo.com): The national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has announced it will now serve both London and Frankfurt with dedicated services from Bali, effectively doubling capacity on the routes from April 1, 2002 due the increasing demand following January's announced suspension.

Travel Weekly East reported that Garuda will fly separate twice-a-week services, Bali-Bangkok-London, and Bali-Singapore-London from next month - bringing total weekly capacity on the route to 1,600 seats. Currently, Garuda flies Bali-Singapore-Frankfurt-London twice a week.

In an additional boost to the Bali industry, the summer period from July 1 expects to see capacity effectively tripled from current levels, when both London and Frankfurt services will go to three times a week. The Amsterdam route remains at this level.

Garuda cited a rapid return of bookings as the reason for the vastly improved outlook, a fact supported by wholesalers at ITB Berlin, who say bookings in the first quarter from Germany and UK have been very strong.

"The market started to recover in three to four weeks, in such a hurry that we were surprised how fast people forgot September 11," said GA's European spokesperson.

Agents welcomed the news, noting that actions by Qantas-BA to suspend its London-Bangkok terminator services would put GA even more in the picture.

"It's fantastic. It was a big surprise when they wanted to focus on business with the Jakarta route - it had a great effect on leisure bookings. The Bangkok-Bali comeback is also great news. Garuda will see a lot more bookings," said Kuoni UK's product manager Mark Robson.

Reaction from Bali was similarly upbeat. "This is the best news I've heard from Garuda in a long time. The biggest problem for Bali is always seats - increased capacity we can only applaud. And it's excellent they have Bangkok in there, because quite a few in Bangkok want a Bali extension," said Willem Loots of Asian Trails Indonesia.