Private firm to buy Garuda's idle aircraft

JAKARTA (JP): A private company will buy nine idle Airbus A- 300 B4 aircraft from Garuda Indonesia, which will hire five of them, while the other four will be leased to Garuda's sister airline Merpati Nusantara.

"The A-300 B4s will be bought at US$9 million to $11 million each and Garuda will use the money to strengthen its financial structure," Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said here yesterday.

The nine aircraft have been idle at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport west of here for several months.

Garuda executives said earlier that the nine Airbus airplanes will be sold as part of the airline's modernization plans. They identified an American company as a potential buyer. That firm reportedly proposed purchasing the planes at $13 million each, lower than their common value of around $15 million.

Haryanto, who declined to identify the buyer, said that the French-based Airbus Industrie will repair the aircraft, especially the air conditioning and reading lamps, in cooperation with the domestic company.

The minister was quoted by Antara as saying that the companies will also negotiate about spare-part procurement for a certain period. The negotiations are to be completed by the end of next month.

He denied that Garuda will suffer losses due to the idleness of the Airbus aircraft, in addition to 11 DC-9s, at the Garuda Maintenance Facility. (icn)