Airlines
Citilink hires pilots ahead of first A320neo delivery
September 15th 2016
Garuda Indonesia low-cost subsidiary, Citilink, on Monday confirmed 70 new pilots who will now undergo training at the Garuda Indonesia Training Center and join the budget carrier’s flight deck team next year. Read More »
Citilink is on a quick expansion trajectory. The carrier’s president, Albert Burhan, said the latest recruitments were to meet the need for pilots “for five new aircraft to be delivered this year and another five next year”. Among those will be Citilink’s first A320neo, slated for handover in January.
Citilink placed a firm order with Airbus for 25 A320neos in December 2012. The contract represents the first direct purchase by Citilink from the Toulouse-based manufacturer. It follows an order placed in 2011 by Garuda for 15 ceos and ten neos for operation by Citilink.
Burhan hopes to achieve 15% in fuel savings from operating the neo (compared to the ceo). He added that of the five neos arriving next year, at least two would be used for the airline’s charter flights to Northern China, including Beijing, and to Jeddah. “Our existing A320s can only do those flights with two stops. With these new aircraft, we can do it with just one stop,” he said.
With the ten additional aircraft coming in, Citilink’s fleet will grow from 39 at present to 49 at year-end 2017. The LCC currently serves 27 Indonesian cities with 234 daily departures. It is targeting 12 million passengers this year. In the first-half, it recorded 5.2 million.
Separately, parent Garuda is busy preparing for the resumption of flights between Indonesia and the U.S. after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last month restored Indonesia’s Category 1 rating, allowing Indonesian carriers to fly to its territory.
Initially, Garuda is planning to launch two routes, Los Angeles and New York, given the large Indonesian Diasporas in both markets. It is does not have the aircraft to go to either destination nonstop, so it will deploy one of its B777-300ERs with an intermediate stop in Tokyo.
“With some consideration especially on commercial aspect, the flight will transit at Tokyo Narita prior to flying to the U.S. from Jakarta. Up until now, Japan still grants ‘fifth freedom rights’ to Indonesian carriers, which allows Garuda Indonesia to fill up the seats – and further increase the passenger load factor for our flights to the U.S.,” said Garuda’s vice-president of corporate communications, Benny Butarbutar.
