Boeing to help market RI jets in N. America

JAKARTA (JP): The America-based aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co. pledged yesterday to help Indonesia's state aircraft maker PT Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) market its N-2130 jets in North America.

"Boeing wants to help in the marketing of the N-2130 along with after-sales services because its cooperation with PT IPTN in the past 15 years has been fruitful," Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie told journalists after accompanying Boeing's chief executive officer, Frank Shrontz in a meeting with President Soeharto at the latter's residence.

IPTN has so far produced components for Boeing's 737 and 767 planes since 1992.

Shrontz, who arrived here last Saturday to attend the Indonesia Air Show, said he met with Soeharto to express his gratitude to the flag carrier Garuda Indonesia for agreeing to purchase newly developed Boeing 777 aircraft.

Garuda Indonesia last week signed a US$1.6 billion order for the purchase of 23 Boeing aircraft, including six Boeing 777s, 12 737-300s and five 737-500s.

Habibie, who is also president of IPTN, said the 130-seater N- 2130 jets, when they enter the market by year 2006, are expected to replace Boeing's 737 jets.

"Boeing has promised to focus its businesses on building wide- body planes like Boeing 747 and Boeing 777," Habibie said.

IPTN is now moving ahead with plans to build the twin-jet, electronically-controlled N-2130, whose roll-out is scheduled for 2002 and marketing for 2006.

President Soeharto has called upon Indonesians to help finance the N-2130 project, expected to cost some US$2 billion by buying shares of PT Dua Satu Tiga Puluh, the company established last February to finance the project. Soeharto himself is so far the biggest shareholder in the company.

The N-2130 jets will be the next centerpiece of Indonesia's aerospace program following the path of the medium-haul 70-seat N-250 turboprop plane, which made its maiden flight last August.

IPTN said that it has firm orders for 245 N-250s, mostly from domestic airlines. Gulfstream of the United States as well as Pakistani and a number of European leasing companies have also placed orders for the aircraft.

IPTN, set up in 1976, currently has two subsidiaries in the United States: IPTN North America based in Seattle, the home base of Boeing, and the American Regional Aircraft Industry (Amrai) based in Alabama, which will assemble N-250 aircraft with kits shipped from Indonesia. IPTN plans to launch its N-250 passenger aircraft in the U.S. market in 1998. The marketing will be handled by Amrai.

IPTN last year established another subsidiary in Lemwerder, Germany, to market all of the company's products to aviation firms in Europe.

Also last year, the company opened a permanent office in the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi to boost future sales of its civilian and military jets and to provide services for its Gulf customers who have already bought 130-seat CN-235 planes.

In addition to the N-250, IPTN is also manufacturing the CN- 235, a smaller version of the N-250, in cooperation with Casa of Spain. (rid)