Garuda transfers 19 F28s to Air Force and Merpati

JAKARTA (JP): The country's flag carrier Garuda Indonesia yesterday handed over 19 aging Fokker-28 aircraft to the Air Force and its sister company Merpati Nusantara Airlines.

In a simple ceremony held at the Garuda Maintenance Facility (GMF) in Cengkareng west of here, Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto symbolically washed one of the F-28 aircraft with flowered water and introduced it to Air Force Chief of Staff Marshall Rilo Pambudi.

Merpati received 17 F-28-4000 airplanes, which have been operated for about 17,500 hours to 22,500 hours. The Air Force received two F-28-3000s which have been operated for 25,000 hours on average.

According to Haryanto, the two aircraft for the Air Force, modified for 38 seats only, will be used to transport VVIP and VIP passengers.

Garuda, which started operating the F-28s between 1977 and 1984, plans to modernize its fleet. It began to slash the operation of aging airplanes and offered nine Airbus A300-B4s and 11 DC-9s for sale.

The carrier has not succeeded in selling the aircraft as several unidentified companies, mostly from the United States, have asked to procure the A300-B4s, for instance, at US$13 million each, lower than their common value of around $15 million.

Garuda's fleet now consists of 55 aircraft, including two Boeing 747-400s, six Boeing 747-200s, one Boeing 747-200 Combi, eight Boeing 737-300s, seven Boeing 737-400s, nine Airbus 300- B4s, 10 Airbus 300-600s, six DC-10-30s and six MD-11s.

Equity

Meanwhile, Merpati's president, Ridwan Fataruddin, told reporters yesterday that Garuda actually handed over the aircraft as government's equity participation in his company. Each of the used F-28 aircraft costs $3 million.

Merpati previously leased the aircraft from Garuda at $506 per hour. As Merpati operates one F-28 for about six hours per day, it had to pay about $1.55 million per month to Garuda for leasing 17 F-28s.

Merpati, which will become independent next year from its holding company, operates 90 aircraft, including five advanced turbo propellers (ATPs), 11 Cassa-212s, 10 Twin Otters, 13 Fokker-27s, three Fokker-100s, 14 CN-235s, six DC-9s and 28 F- 28s. It focuses its business on domestic flights, while Garuda concentrates its service on international and major domestic routes.

Haryanto also inaugurated yesterday a housing complex for Garuda's employees at Teluk Naga, Tangerang west of here.

The company's president, Wage Mulyono, said that Garuda will construct 914 houses, 337 of which have been completed and 448 others are under construction.

"The construction of the other 129 units will begin soon and is expected to be completed in June 1995," he said.(icn)