Airline News
Garuda’s Amsterdam in jeopardy
June 1st 2015
Indonesian flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia, may need to end direct Jakarta-Amsterdam operations because the runway surface at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta is not strong enough to accommodate the take-off a fully-loaded B777-300ER’s. Read More » “We are still considering the plan because the airport operator recently decreased the airport’s PCN [pavement classification number],” Garuda Indonesia president, Arif Wibowo, told The Jakarta Post. PCN is an International Civil Aviation Organization standard to indicate the strength of a runway, taxiway or airport ramp.
“As a consequence, we are not able to sell all of the seats for our Jakarta to Amsterdam direct flight. [If we did] the plane’s weight will exceed the runway’s bearing strength and damage it. And so businesswise the route is not profitable,” said Garuda’s operational director, Capt. Novianto Herupratomo. “We are planning to reroute the flight with a stopover in Singapore, but we will continue to serve a direct flight from Amsterdam to Jakarta,” he continued. “Strengthening a runway takes time. The fastest way to do so is by covering it with an asphalt layer, and we are still conducting a study of it,” said Djoko Murjatmodjo, operational director at state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura II.
Garuda, which reported $419 million in operating losses for the past financial year, ordered the -300ER specifically to launch non-stop services to Europe, and configured the widebody with first class seating as it believed this was what the market demanded. Until now, only the triangular Jakarta-Amsterdam-Gatwick route has materialized. Garuda said it would receive its remaining three B777-300ERs this year, without first class, to cater to the growing hajj and umrah market. Garuda’s executive team has identified China as its largest growth market. The carrier plans to launch up to ten routes this year, including Chengdu, Chengzhou, Chongqing, Ningbo, Harbin, Xian, Shenyang and Wuhan and increase frequency between Denpasar (Bali) and Shanghai.
Local rival and rising giant, Lion Air, will temporarily halt its expansion due to “significant reductions in passenger numbers” following Indonesia’s new price floor regulation, introduced in February, which prohibits discount fares of less than 40% of the official price. "Since the policy was implemented, many passengers switched because Lion Air was not able to fix the flight tickets at low prices," said its operations director, Ari Kuncoro Daniel Putu.
