Indonesian start-up Pacific Royale Airways has appointed Tarun Trikha as its new chief executive, effective from 1 August 2012.

Trikha will still remain on the Pacific Royale board of directors, where he had previously been the chairman. He succeeds Samudra Sukardi, the former chief executive who announced his resignation last week.

Pacific Royale launched its first flight on 15 June and serves routes to Semarang, Pangkalan Bun and Bandung. In the first two months of operations, its average load factor hit 65-70%, says the carrier.

"We are currently preparing for the arrival of the first Airbus 320 in early September, and the second one is expected to arrive by the end of the same month. With the addition of the new Airbuses to our fleet, we will expand our network to the destination cities such as Jakarta, Surabaya, Batam, Ujung Pandang, Bandung, Padang and Balikpapan," says Trikha.

Pacific Royale owns two Fokker 50 aircraft that operates from Batam and Surabaya. The third Fokker 50 aircraft arrived in Indonesia on 1 August, and is being prepared to be placed into service by the end of September.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news