Bimantara eyes Garuda's A300-B4 aircraft

Bimantara eyes Garuda's A300-B4 aircraft

JAKARTA (JP): The Bimantara Group, one of the country's
leading conglomerates, has proposed buying nine idle Airbus A300-
B4 aircraft from Garuda Indonesia and leasing them back to the
national airlines.

Director General of Air Transportation Zainuddin Sikado told
reporters here yesterday that one of Bimantara's subsidiaries had
set up a consortium with other private firms to buy the aging
jets.

"The proposed deal is quite similar to the previous one
whereby a consortium of private companies bought eight Fokker F-
28s from Garuda and leased them to Garuda's subsidiary, Merpati
Nusantara Airlines," he said.

Sikado was speaking to reporters during a break at a hearing
between Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto and
Commission V of the House of Representatives.

A consortium consisting of PT Arthaska Nusaphala, PT Sakanusa
Dirgantara and KFS Aviation Inc. of Japan, recently bought the
eight Fokker-28s at US$2.7 million a unit under a three-way deal
that included the leasing of the aircraft to Merpati for seven
years.

The consortium will first overhaul the Fokker-28s at the
Merpati maintenance center in Surabaya before they are leased to
Merpati at $950 per hour.

Sikado said there were several bidders for the nine A300-B4s
offering prices of between US$40 million and $43 million for all.

But he declined to mention the other bidders. Neither was he
willing to disclose the bidding price offered by the Bimantara-
led consortium.

Minister Haryanto earlier said that Garuda which badly needed
fresh funds to improve its liquidity had offered the aging A300-
B4 aircraft at between $9 million and $11 million a unit.

"We are still looking for the highest bidder willing and able
to pay cash," he said.

New routes

In the hearing, Haryanto told the Commission, which deals with
telecommunications, tourism, transportation, public housing and
public works, that the government has concluded a new air
agreement with Brunei.

"We agreed to link seven more cities, those being Ujungpandang
of South Sulawesi, Surabaya of East Java, Batam and Pekanbaru of
Riau, Medan of North Sumatra, Palembang of South Sumatra and
Padang of West Sumatra, to Brunei with three flights per week,"
he said.

In addition, he said, the Jakarta-Bandar Seri Begawan and
Denpasar-Bandar Seri Begawan services will gradually be increased
from three times to seven times per week in a series of steps up
to 1996.

Haryanto added that the bilateral air agreement with Taiwan
had also been renewed, whereby Jakarta-Taipei flights will be
doubled to 16 times per week starting in April this year. The
flights will be further expanded to 20 times per week by April
1996.

The new agreement also includes other services linking Manado,
North Sulawesi and Surabaya with Taipei and Kaoh Shiung beginning
in April with eight flights per week and 12 times per week by
April 1996.

"Another highly promising route between Taiwan and Canada will
be discussed later," he said.

He said that Indonesia would also negotiate bilateral air
agreements with Qatar, Uzbekistan, Belgium, Ukraine, Slovak,
Suriname, Venezuela and South Africa. (icn)