Addendum
Saved again: Merpati’s second coming?
October 1st 2016
Indonesia’s State Enterprises Ministry has said cash-strapped and state-owned Merpati Nusantara Airlines, which ceased flying in 2014, will re-start services next year after restructuring. Read More »
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“We hope it can resume operations in 2017 if, in the remaining one year, the airline receives a privatization permit from the finance minister and investors are ready to invest in it,” said the ministry’s deputy for business restructuring and development, Aloysius K. Ro. Some 1,500 Merpati employees lost their jobs when the carrier collapsed.
The government has injected $30 million into the airline as part of the restructuring. The operational and financial re-engineering of Merpati includes encouraging operational cooperation between Garuda Maintenance Facility (GMF) and Merpati Maintenance Facility (MMF). “This is a big step. GMF will manage MMF to increase the capacity of domestic aircraft maintenance business,” said Ro.
In the first half of next year, Merpati will go to the market to seek investors for its planned return to the skies. Ro conceded that “it is not easy to find investors to engage in flight business even under normal circumstances”.
