Garuda Indonesia has begun working on a new long-term business plan that will cover a network and fleet expansion, following its recent change in top management.
New president and chief executive Emirsyah Satar said in an interview at last month’s Interational Air Transport Association annual general meeting in Tokyo that the new business plan is due to be completed late in the third quarter of this year or early in the fourth quarter.
“It will be more like a 10-year plan than a five-year plan,” says Satar, who was appointed chief executive in March when the government also replaced state-owned Garuda’s entire board.
“It will cover fleet growth and where Garuda will be positioned, and which markets we will be playing in. We are not in Europe any more, for example. We are also not in the USA. These are potential markets for us to go to.”
Fleet-expansion plans will primarily be for low-cost unit Citilink, says Satar, which Garuda sees as having a solid future within the group. The low-cost airline only operates four Boeing 737 Classics, but by the end of the year this should increase to seven, with some aircraft likely to come from Garuda itself.
Plans drawn up last year called for 10 aircraft to have been operated by Citilink by the end of the first quarter of this year, but the growth plan was delayed, in part due to a lack of availability in the leasing market and as the carrier was anticipating a management change, says Satar. Although Citilink remains a small operation and only has domestic services, in future it will play a bigger role focusing on the “middle-lower end of the market”, Satar says. “In future, I foresee Citilink might be carrying more passengers [domestically] than Garuda because the middle-lower end of the market is the fastest growing.”
NICHOLAS IONIDES/TOKYO
Source: Flight International
