Minister asks Garuda to be more aggressive in international market

Minister for State-Owned Enterprises Rini Sumarno has asked national carrier PT Garuda Indonesia to act more aggressively, especially in promoting itself in both local and international markets.

“The Minister asked us to continue to enhance our synergy with other state-owned enterprises in expanding Garudas infrastructure and services,” said CEO of Garuda Indonesia Arif Wibowo, after a meeting with Minister Rini Sumarno in the Ministrys offices in Jakarta, Tuesday.

During the meeting, which was also attended by the Ministrys Deputy of Finance, Survey and Consulting Gatot Trihargo, Garuda was asked to be more aggressive in their future development, including by strongly cooperating with their subsidiary business, Citilink.

“To dominate the domestic, regional and international market, Minister Rini Sumarno emphasized the importance of connecting time between flights, as well as adding more routes to the existing ones, especially to tourist destinations,” he added.

In relation to that, he further explained that the airline is planning to open a new route from Jakarta to Labuan Bajo, East Nusa.

“Direct flights from Jakarta to Labuan Bajo, East Nusa will officially start Oct 27. A route to the same destination has actually been operating from Denpasar, Bali. The new route from the capital city to Labuan Bajo can become the bridge to direct connections to our international routes,” he reiterated.

In its initial phase, the new route from Jakarta to Labuan Bajo will operate daily at 10 am.

“If the demand for it continues to rise, we can then add more flight times there,” he remarked.

According to the Ministers directives that seeks additional domestic, regional and international flights, he said, the airline have brought in 50 Boeing737 MAX airplanes, while Citilink brought in 50 Airbus A320 airplanes.

“We need to be more aggressive in adding more narrow body airplanes, in order to strengthen our domestic networks,” he stated.

On the same occasion, Garuda and Citilinks market share also moved forward, as it is hoped to reach 50 percent in the domestic market, compared to its value at the moment, which is 44 percent.

“The Minister wants us to also dominate the domestic market. We are asked to calculate it in detail, so we can reach that target. As for the international market, Garuda is targeted to dominate 50 percent of the Chinese and Middle Eastern markets, whereas, at the moment, we hold about 38 percent of it,” he noted.

Additionally, the national carrier will open a new international route from Denpasar, Bali to Chengdu, China starting January 2017.