Garuda Indonesia to get MD-11ER jet

JAKARTA (JP): Barring any delays, national air carrier Garuda Indonesia will receive tomorrow its third MD-11ER, the final jet it ordered from the former McDonnell Douglas of the United States.

The state-owned air carrier has ordered three MD-11ERs and selected General Electric engines to power the jets in order to strengthen the airline's service to the U.S., Pudjobroto of Garuda said.

"The new jet is scheduled to serve Los Angeles. Garuda plans to increase its Jakarta-Honolulu-Los Angeles route during this winter to seven times from the previous five times per week," he said.

An aging Garuda Airbus A-300-B4 jet flying from Jakarta crashed shortly before landing at Polonia Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, in late September, killing all 234 people on board.

"We also plan to use the new MD-11ERs to serve destinations in the Middle East (Jeddah, Dahran, Riyadh) and Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Darwin). But Garuda will continue to use DC-10s to fly to Sydney," Pudjo said.

In addition to the new jets, Garuda which began to use MD-11s in 1991, has now six of the MD-11 family aircraft.

Garuda originally also expected to see the deliveries of five Boeing B-737-500 aircraft it ordered from Boeing during the 1996 Indonesia Air Show. But only one of the jets has been delivered since August when the original delivery schedule began. (icn)