Garuda Indonesia To Procure 24 New Aircraft

Jimbaran, Bali, May 10 (Antara) - PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk. would procure 24 new aircraft to revitalize its fleet, its president director Emirsyah Satar said here on Friday. "The procurement of the new aircraft that will increase our fleet is part of our efforts to increase our flight frequencies," he said. The state-owned airline`s flight frequencies are now recorded at 450 covering various destinations at home and abroad. By 2015 the number will be increased to 1,000, he said. The increase would make the number of aircraft owned by Garuda Indonesia to reach 194 units by 2015 from presently 106 including those used by its subsidiary, Citilink. "Four Boeing 777-300ERs, three Airbus A330s, 10 Boeing 737-800NGs and seven Bombarider CRJ100 Nextgens would be added to the fleet," he said. Garuda plans to open new routes and increase domestic as well as overseas flight frequencies. The new international routes to be opened are routes to Brisbane, London, Australia and Japan. "We could not as yet tell the fixed data but early in August we will open the Denpasar-Brisbane route and in the middle of this year Denpasar to two big cities in the country," he said. Garuda Indonesia at present serves 35 flights from Denpasar every day, 13 of them to Jakarta. Through its hub in Denpasar it serves flights to Australia, Japan, Korea, Sydney and other domestic destinations.