News
Garuda Group targets 16% growth in 2016 and Soekarno-Hatta reveals global hub ambitions
February 5th 2016
Indonesian flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia, is targeting 27.5 million passengers in 2016, up 10% year-on-year, and is preparing for the delivery of 17 new aircraft, including five wide-bodies. Read More »
Garuda president and CEO, Arif Wibowo, said on Monday the carrier would increase its international capacity by 30% this year as it receives its tenth B777-300ER and four more A330-300s. It hoped to carry ten million international passengers in 2016.
Domestically, the Garuda Group growth is centred on its budget subsidiary, Citilink. The LCC is predicting a 30% increase in passengers, to 12.6 million, this year. "Citilink will receive eight new aircraft, boosting its fleet to 52 airplanes. This is the true foundation to dominate the domestic market," Wibowo said.
Garuda and Citilink forecast combined traffic of 40.1 million passengers in 2016, a 16% improvement over 2015 figures, and forecast taking 50% of the domestic market, up from 44% last year.
On Monday, Garuda unveiled its new Super Diamond business class seats in an “all-aisle” 1-2-1 layout, along with a Panasonic EX3 inflight entertainment system with 16-inch touch-screen LCD screens. The seats will be progressively installed on all its A330s and B777s.
Separately, “Lion Air has officially obtained the Operational Safety Audit certification (IOSA) from IATA”, said its director-general, Edward Sirait. “This shows, in terms of safety operations, we are up to standard.” Lion Air’s domestic and regional subsidiaries, Batik Air, Wings Air, Malindo Air and Thai Lion Air, have IOSA and ISSA certifications.
Lion Air founder and group boss, Rusdi Kirana, said Lion Group could revive its $1 billion IPO plans in 2017 if Indonesia’s economic growth picks up this year. Lion Air has more than 500 aircraft on order from Airbus and Boeing.
To the surprise of many industry pundits, Angkusa Pura II (AP II), the operator of Jakarta’s notoriously congested Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, said it hopes to become a major transfer hub for international passengers. The state-owned airport company said the opening of Soekarno-Hatta’s new 42 hectare, ten trillion rupiah ($700 million) Ultimate Terminal 3 in May will immediately increase the airport’s annual capacity by 15 million passengers and will reach 25 million when the new terminal is fully operational in 2017.
“We want to make Soekarno-Hatta a transit airport, not for the cities in Indonesia, but for cities of the world,” said AP II CEO, Budi Karya Sumadi. The airport has an existing design capacity of 22 million passengers a year, but is currently operating at more than 60 million annually.
