Citilink to add five new Airbus planes this year

JAKARTA. Domestic low-cost carrier Citilink plans to take delivery of five new Airbus A320 planes this year in order to support its network expansion.

“We will put five more planes into operation this year. We are going to use the planes to increase the frequency of flights on our existing routes,” Citilink acting president director Albert Burhan said as quoted by kompas.com on Friday.

Albert said that three new aircraft will arrive in January, March and May while the remaining two are expected to arrive in the second half of 2015.

“We plan to use the aircraft to increase the frequency of our flights in the eastern part of Indonesia, such as the connection between Surabaya [East Java] and Makassar [South Sulawesi],” he added.

Citilink, the strategic business unit of flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, currently operates 29 aircraft, consisting of one Boeing B737-400, six B737-300s and 22 Airbus A320-200s, flying 140 times daily from Jakarta and Surabaya to major cities across the archipelago, such as Ambon in Maluku, Bandung in West Java, Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, Batam in Riau Islands, Medan in North Sumatra, Padang in West Sumatra and Yogyakarta.

The carrier aims to expand its network to regional destinations in Southeast Asia in 2016.