Garuda Indonesia will be acquiring ten Boeing 777s, an aircraft it plans to use for long-range services to destinations including Europe.
The carrier will be getting ten 777s for delivery from 2010 and the airline’s president Emirsyah Satar might be coming to Singapore on the week commencing 18 February to sign the agreement with Boeing, says a Garuda spokesman in Jakarta, who was responding to reports quoting from the airline’s executive VP of operations Ari Sapari.
Sapari is quoted as saying the first 777 will be delivered in 2010 and the aircraft will be acquired under an agreement in which the carrier will firstly lease and then purchase the 777s.
The spokesman was unable to confirm this but says the carrier’s president plans to come to the Singapore Airshow and might use the occasion to sign an agreement with Boeing regarding the 777 acquisition. The Singapore Airshow is on 19-24 February.
He says the 777s will be for longer-haul routes to places such as Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Garuda suspended services to Europe a few years ago but plans to return there.
Garuda’s widebody fleet currently consists of six Airbus A330s and three Boeing 747-400s. The A330s are used for services to Australia and Asia and the 747s are largely used for services to the Middle East.
If Garuda goes ahead and orders ten 777s, it means Garuda is effectively reviving an earlier plan.
In the 1990s the national carrier ordered six 777-200ERs but then the 1997 Asian financial crisis led it to postpone delivery.
Later it became unclear what the new delivery schedule would be or whether Garuda was still going through with the deal.
Besides 777-200ERs, the carrier in September 2005 signed an agreement for ten Boeing 787-8s and early last year it signed an agreement for 25 Boeing 737-800s.
But in more recent times Garuda has failed to make any public mention of the earlier deal for 787s.
Source: flightglobal.com's sister premium news site Air Transport Intelligence news
Source: FlightGlobal.com
