Airline News
Lion Air ban lifted, Garuda resumes long-haul expansion
July 13th 2015
Indonesia’s fast-growing Lion Air Group has submitted 44 new route applications to the Indonesian Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) after a four-month long ban was lifted in June. Read More » Hadi Djuraid, a senior advisor to the Indonesian Ministry of Transport, told Indonesia’s Kompass newspaper that while Lion Air had submitted the applications, the Ministry had not approved them because the Jakarta-based carrier had not furnished the DGCA with details that ranged time slots to turnaround from times and cabin configurations.
Lion Air founder and group chief executive, Rusdi Kirana, said the carrier would likely delay its planned initial public offering, planned for the first quarter of 2016, because of weak market conditions. Previous reports indicated Lion Air planned to raise 10 trillion rupiah ($822 million) from the disposal of a 30% stake to help finance orders for 500 additional Airbus and Boeing aircraft and 40 ATR72-600s.
Flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia, said it carried 23.6% more passengers in May compared with the previous year, including a 14.4% increase in international passengers. It overall load factor was boosted by 8%, to 75.7%, and international load factor rose 12.8%, to 72.5%, year-on-year. Cargo declined by 8.4%, which resulted in a load factor of 38.4%.
At the Paris Air Show in June, Garuda president and chief executive, Arif Wibowo, said the carrier would resume its long-haul expansion in early 2016, with new services to Frankfurt and Paris, after it receives three additional B777-300ERs later this year. Wibowo said Garuda would not include a first class cabin in its new B777s, although for now it would maintain the product on its original fleet of six. In Paris, Garuda placed a $9.1 billion order with Airbus for 30 A350s, in addition to 30 B787-9s and 30 B737 MAXs ordered from Boeing.
