Citilink Plans Expansion Serving New Domestic And Regional Routes

Surabaya, E Java, Dec 29 (Antara) - PT Citilink Indonesia plans business expansion in 2015 opening new routes domestic and regional, its management said. Citilink will expand domestic routes mainly in eastern Indonesia, acting president director and CEO of the subsidiary of the nation`s flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, Albert Burhan said in a statement here, Sunday. The airline will use a US$20 million loan from Garuda to finance the expansion project, Albert said here last week. "Citilink is set to dominate the domestic market and expand regional operation ahead of the implementation of ASEAN Open Sky 2015," he said. Albert, who is also finance director of the airline, said in the first half of 2015 , Citilink will procure five new units of Airbus A320 aircraft. With the additional units of aircraft the airline will be able to increase its flight frequency by 30 percent in 2015 from 182 flights per day at present. In the first nine months of the year Citilink reported US$3.8 million in profit. Earlier, Garuda announced it had provided a loan of US$20 million for Citilink to be repayable in four years. Garuda also rescheduled repayment of US$95 million debt of Citilink according to the business plan of the budget airline . Currently Citilink has a fleet of 32 units of Airbus A320 aircraft serving 39 routes linking 23 big cities in the country with 182 flights everyday. Its `on time performance (OTP) recorded until September 2014 was 82.4 percent , Benny S Butarbutar, its VP for Corporate Communications, said.