Garuda's expansion plan has 1995 deadline

JAKARTA (JP): Garuda Indonesia, the national flag carrier, has been given until the end of the year to increase the number of its domestic routes, a company spokesman said yesterday.

Jansius Siahaan said that Garuda will lose its license to expand its domestic services if it fails to meet the deadline.

He said that the airline plans to introduce seven flights per week between Jakarta and Pontianak in West Kalimantan, and between Pekanbaru in Riau and Ampenan in West Nusa Tenggara.

"The new domestic services must be commenced by December. The government will cancel our expansion license if we fail to start the services on schedule," Siahaan said.

Under the license, issued earlier this year, Garuda is permitted to expand its domestic services to cover 32 domestic destinations.

Garuda currently serves 15 domestic destinations from Jakarta: Banda Aceh, Aceh; Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan; Balikpapan, South Kalimantan; Batam, Riau; Biak and Jayapura, Irian Jaya; Denpasar, Bali; Yogyakarta; Medan, North Sumatra; Padang, West Sumatra; Palembang, South Sumatra; Manado, North Sulawesi; Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi; Surakarta, Central Java; and Surabaya, East Java.

Siahaan acknowledged that Garuda does not currently have enough aircraft to provide the planned new services. "We are presently still preparing narrow-bodied aircraft for the new services."

"We have handed over all of our Fokker F-28s to Garuda's subsidiary, Merpati Airlines, so now we are preparing additional narrow-bodied aircraft for the planned domestic routes," Siahaan said.

Last year, Garuda handed over a total of 17 aging F-28s to Merpati Airlines and two other similar aircraft to the Air Force. Garuda currently operates a fleet of 55 aircraft, consisting of three Boeing B747-400s, six B747-200s, 10 Airbus A300-600s, nine A300-B4s, six MD-11s, six DC-10-30s, eight B737-300s and seven B737-400s.

The flag carrier, which flies to 34 international destinations, will revamp several of its flight schedules to Europe and the United States between Oct. 28 and March 30, 1996. (icn)