News
Garuda rolls out new premium cabin and plans for 10% passenger growth in 2016
January 8th 2016
Garuda Indonesia will debut its new business class seats this month when it takes delivery of its latest A330-300. The SkyTeam alliance member is upgrading to a 'fully lie-flat' seat in a more passenger-friendly 1-2-1 layout; the Super Diamond design from B/E Aerospace that provides direct aisle access for each passenger. Read More » The Jakarta-based flag carrier, under the leadership of Arif Wibowo, will reconfigure its existing A330 fleet with the new cabins.
Garuda also will unveil a regional business class for its 50-on-order B737 MAXs (plus 30 options announced last June), due to join the airline from late 2017. The B737 MAX will showcase a new interior concept created by London-based JPA Design.
Garuda is forecasting 8%-10% passenger expansion this year, to 25 million passengers, said Wibowo, which will outperform its 3% growth in 2015. Garuda is taking delivery of 23 new aircraft as it seeks to reap the benefits of Indonesia’s “booming tourism industry”. Its domestic LCC, Citilink, is predicting a 30% increase in passenger numbers, to 12.6 million, this year.
In other good news for Garuda, the Indonesian government has announced it would scrap the 5%-10% import tax on 21 categories of aircraft spare parts, a measure likely to ease the process of sourcing and shortening lead time for the industry. MRO accounts for approximately 10% of Garuda’s total expenses.
