Garuda Reduces Loss 90.94 Pct

Jakarta, July 31 (ANTARA) - The nation`s flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk (GIAA)said it succeeded in reducing cumulative losses 90.94 percent to US$2.022 million in the first half of the year. The publicly traded airline still had cumulative losses of US$22.336 million a year earlier, Garuda President Emirsyah Satar said here Tuesday. He attributed the improved performance to 17.75 percent increase in operating income to US$1.512 billion. "Schedule flight services contributed US$1.372 billion to the total income or an increase of 19.09 percent with non scheduled flight service and other income making up the rest," Emirsyah said. Meanwhile, operating cost rose 13.79 percent to US$1.5 billion, with sales and promotional costs climbing 7.84 percent to US$133.09 million, he noted. The airline, however, still posted an operating profit of US$10.79 million as against a loss of US$34.75 million. The operating cost was attributable to foreign exchange gain of US$9.99 million . By the end of the first half of the year, the assets of the airline were valued at US$2.099 billion , up from US$2.075 billion by the end of last year. Earlier Emirsyah said Garuda hopes to earn an income of Rp32.6 trillion (US$3.6 billion) this year or an increase of 20% from last year. Increase in income is expected despite prediction by pessimism expressed by the International Air Transport Association on lingering crisis in Europe,he said. The optimism is based on expected operation of 22 new units of aircraft this year. This year Garuda is expected deliveries of 22 unit of new aircraft including 11 units for its subsidiary Citilink . By the end of this year, Garuda hopes to operate a fleet of 105 units of aircraft, up from 87 units last year.