Garuda to operate DC-10s on HK route

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)

Cathay -- Page 10