Merpati operates B737-200

JAKARTA (JP): Merpati Nusantara Airlines, a subsidiary of the flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, is scheduled to start operating tomorrow an aging Boeing 737-200 aircraft which has been bought from Lufthansa of Germany.

A company spokesman, Benny Achmad, said on Thursday that the aircraft will serve routes linking Jakarta, Surabaya in East Java, Ujungpandang in South Sulawesi and Jayapura in Irian Jaya.

"The Boeing 737-200 aircraft will replace DC-9 planes," he said.

He said his company has actually received two B737-200s already. The second one will begin operations in January.

In addition to the two B737-200s, Merpati currently operates 92 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.

Indonesia has agreed to procure 10 used Boeing 737-200s from Lufthansa through the state-owned leasing firm PT Pann Multi Finance at US$9 million each. Out of the planes, which have been in operation since a period between 1982 and 1985, three each will be operated by Merpati and Bouraq and two each by Mandala and Sempati.

The government has actually approved on the purchase of 32 used planes from Lufthansa but the purchase of 22 is delayed due to financial reasons.(icn)