Garuda to revamp international routes
JAKARTA (JP): Garuda Indonesia announced plans over the weekend to revamp its fleet and make major route changes, especially in serving Europe, in a bid to enhance its competitive edge.
Garuda announced on Saturday that the plan is meant to improve the airline's services, reduce the number of stopovers and shorten the block time between one destination and another.
The plan is expected to improve cost-efficiency as well.
The rerouting includes changes in the number of flights per week to destinations, such as Adelaide in Australia (twice a week), Melbourne in Australia (six times a week), Nagoya in Japan (five times a week), Singapore (60 times a week), Tokyo (seven times a week), London (three times a week), Hong Kong (15 times a week), Amsterdam (seven times a week), Bangkok (seven times a week), Kaohsiung in Taiwan (once a week), Kuala Lumpur (15 times a week), Los Angeles (five times a week) and Zurich in Switzerland (twice a week).
Flights to Berlin, Vienna, Munich and Madrid will be postponed until the winter of 1995-1996.
The announcement quoted the president of Garuda, Soepandi, as saying that the rerouting -- which includes the elimination of several flights to a number of destinations in Europe -- is "due to the present circumstances of the airline business, in which customers and competitors have become increasingly unpredictable".
"The temporary removal of several routes does not mean that Garuda is incapable of flying them, nor does it mean to disappoint its customers, especially cargo-users, but is aimed at boosting efficiency," Soepandi said.
To compensate for the lost routes, Garuda will conduct joint flights with a number of foreign airlines, such as KLM of the Netherlands, which already has strong connections to Europe and America.
Long range
Soepandi said that Garuda also plans to make additions to its long-range fleet to anticipate the increasing demand for direct flights.
Direct flights, he said, would subsequently cut back ground handling costs and landing fees which were "quite high" in several places, such as Abu Dhabi and Honolulu.
Stopovers at Abu Dhabi, which currently reach 16 flights a week, will be reduced to six times a week, he said.
Soepandi said that reducing stopovers would also cut back on flight delays.
Garuda currently owns a total of 55 aircraft, among them being 10 A-300-600's, six MD-11's, three B-747-400's and eight B-737- 300's.
Garuda is currently negotiating for the purchase of three MD- 11's to add to its long-range fleet.
The number of passengers served by Garuda last year reached 5,589,525 people, lower than 6,888,288 in 1990, but higher than 5,077,379 in 1992.
Last June, Garuda reported an increase in its profit from almost Rp 6.4 billion (US$2.9 million) in 1993 to Rp 191.2 billion last year.
Most of Garuda's revenues come from non-operational facilities and services, such as the Garuda Maintenance Facility, which brought in Rp 237.8 billion last year, indicating a 26 percent increase from 1993. (pwn)