Garuda Indonesia’s low-cost carrier Citilink plans to resume operations in September after an eight-month hiatus.
Citilink marketing manager Rudy Mariamto Kaharmen says the plan is to resume operations on 1 September using Boeing 737-300s.
On 15 January the airline stopped operating, says Kaharmen, who declines to say why this occurred. Since then “we have been preparing our plan to be spun off…and become of subsidiary of Garuda Indonesia”, he says.
He says the airline has been speaking to several undisclosed aircraft leasing companies and “the plan this year is to be have three aircraft”, all 737-300s.
The 737-300 seats 148 passengers in an all-economy configuration and is a smaller capacity aircraft than the 737-400, says Kaharmen, adding that management has determined that the smaller capacity is more suitable for its needs.
He says: “We have already paid the deposits on some aircraft for a letter-of-intent” and one of the aircraft is an ex-Adam Air 737-300.
The leasing company has agreed that this aircraft will first undergo a maintenance check at GMF AeroAsia before being delivered to Citilink, he adds. Adam Air is a privately owned Indonesian carrier that collapsed earlier this year after experiencing financial problems.
When Citilink resumes operations it will use the air operator’s certificate of Garuda but its main base will be in Surabaya rather than Jakarta, says Kaharmen.
“By having a separate base to Garuda we really plan to be separate” and “make ourselves efficient in terms of networking”, he says.
Garuda Indonesia is positioned as a full-service carrier but Kaharmen says Citilink will be positioned as a low-cost carrier and it will operate on the main trunk routes from Surabaya to Indonesian cities such as Jakarta, Balikpapan, Kupang and the island of Batam.
He adds that Citilink is currently headed by Garuda strategic business unit VP Joseph Saul.
Source: flightglobal.com's sister premium news site Air Transport Intelligence news
Source: FlightGlobal.com
