Garuda on an expansion spree

In an effort to upgrade its offerings and boost tourist numbers, Garuda Indonesia Airlines has charted out a strategic plan. The airline will have a strong participation at the forthcoming Arabian Travel Market.

As part of the plans, the airline has firmed up plans to increase its fleet size to 194 aircraft by 2015, as it races ahead to implement its ambitious ‘Quantum Leap’ program. As a part of its fleet development and expansion program, Garuda Indonesia will have 20 Boeing 737-800NG, 10 units of Boeing 777-300ER, 24 units of A330-200 or other types of the Airbus family, 25 units of narrow body aircraft for Citilink and 18 units of sub-100 Bombardier CRJ1000 NextGen.

Elaborating on the plans, M Arif Wibowo, Garuda Indonesia EVP marketing and sales, said: “Our ‘Quantum Leap’ program is the company’s plan to improve its operations and quality of services. Garuda also wants to reduce the average age of airplanes from 6.5 years to 5.8 years. In terms of routes, we have recently opened a new route, Denpasar – Haneda in April and will operate Jakarta – Taipei daily flights in May.”

In 2012, Garuda Indonesia will receive 21 new additions to its fleet: four  B737-800NGs, two A330-200s, ten A320s for Citilink, and five sub-100 Bombardier CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft.

Speaking on tourism and trade potential, Arif mentioned Indonesia’s economic growth in 2012 was predicted to be higher than other ASEAN countries. The economic growth which projected to be around 6.5% to 6.9% would be higher than that of Malaysia (5.2%), Thailand (4.5%), the Philippines (5.0%) and Singapore (4.4%).

The airline will operate the new aircraft in a two-class cabin configuration on routes from its hubs in Jakarta and Bali to destinations in Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific.

Garuda is also scheduled to launch code-sharing flights to six European points: London (Heathrow), Frankfurt, Munich, Rome, Zurich and Madrid.