Garuda to operate DC-10s on HK route

JAKARTA (JP): Garuda Indonesia yesterday replaced its Airbus A330-300s with McDonnell's DC-10s on its service to Hong Kong because they have been temporarily banned there, the airline's spokesman said.

Arief Hartanto said the airline would continue to run Airbuses on other routes because it had not received any other orders to ground the jets.

Garuda announced Monday it would continue to operate A330-300s despite the Hong Kong aviation authorities's urgent request for it to ground them as Cathay Pacific and Dragonair had done.

"Our Airbus A330-300s are fitted with Rolls Royce Trent 700/768 engines while the A330-300s operated by Cathay Pacific and Dragonair use Rolls Royce Trent 700/772 engines," he said.

Garuda, which has six A330-300s, currently links three Indonesian cities (Jakarta, Surabaya and Denpasar) and Hong Kong 19 times per week.

Hong Kong's civil aviation authority was reported Monday to have reminded Garuda of the view of Britain's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) -- the certifying authority of the Trent 700 engine -- that Garuda A330 operations should also be suspended with immediate effect".

The A330-300s' engine problems came to light when Dragonair, Cathay's affiliated carrier, flew to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia Friday and had to make an emergency landing at Subic Bay in the Philippines.

After that Cathay and Dragonair grounded their Airbuses.

"Garuda still operates A330-300s to other routes including Perth in Australia; Nagoya, Fukuoka and Osaka in Japan and Singapore," Arief said yesterday. He said other countries had not banned the A330-300s.

He said Garuda had five DC-10s which were delivered in the late 1970's.

Meanwhile, Cathay's marketing communications manager in Jakarta, Ida Bayuni, said yesterday that her company had voluntarily suspended its A330-300s fleet.

"Our number one commitment is to the safety of our passengers and we place this priority ahead of all others," she said, adding that Cathay had 11 A330-300s with Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines.

Cathay yesterday again suspended 22 flights from Hong Kong.

Cathay Pacific, which began serving Indonesia in 1969, operates 20 nonstop flights from Jakarta, Denpasar and Surabaya to Hong Kong every week. The airline used to serve Indonesia with Boeing B-747-200, A330-300 and A340-400 jets.

Cathay Pacific's Airbuses would be back in the air in three weeks, a Cathay executive was quoted as saying in Hong Kong. (icn)

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