Garuda's expansion plan has 1995 deadline
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)