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Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) confirmed that Lion Air Flight JT 610 has crashed into the sea near Karawang (West Java). The plane was en route from the nation's capital city of Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang, the capital of the Bangka Belitung Islands province.
Back in 2007 most Indonesian airlines were banned from flying into the European Union (EU)'s airspace; a decision that was made out of safety concerns. On Thursday (15/06), however, the European Commission announced that it had removed all Indonesian airlines from its EU Air Safety list following further improvements in Indonesia's safety standards.
Despite posting a net loss in full-year 2017, Indonesia's national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is optimistic that it will see net profit in 2018. Last year the airline's net loss reached USD $213.4 million, dropping dramatically from a net profit of USD $9.4 million in the preceding year. What strategy will Garuda Indonesia apply to turn the loss into a profit in 2018?
Asman Abnur, Indonesian Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister, said a total of 654 foreign airplane pilots currently work in Indonesia. This is a relatively high figure compared to the 7,150 Indonesian pilots as it implies that 8.4 percent of all pilots in Indonesia are foreign. The use of foreign pilots is allowed by the Indonesian government since 2008.
Garuda Maintenance Facility AeroAsia (GMF AeroAsia), the aircraft maintenance and repair unit of Indonesia's national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, allotted USD $100 million to its capital expenditure budget in 2018. This includes the funds that are required for the company's expansion plans to the Middle East. GMF AeroAsia raised IDR 1.13 trillion (approx. USD $84 million) through an initial public offering (IPO) on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2017.
National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia targets to see the arrival of 50 new airplanes up to 2024 in an effort to revitalize the airline's fleet and improve its on-time performance. Pahala Mansury, President Director of Garuda Indonesia, explained that the airline has already been making these orders since 2014. One Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft arrived on 26 December 2017. Between 2020 and 2024 more planes will follow, between 5-10 per year.
Tony Fernandes, Chief Executive of Airasia, said the Malaysian group plans to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) for its Indonesia AirAsia unit on the Indonesia Stock Exchange before the end of 2017. By selling a stake of between 25-30 percent to the public, the low-cost airline aims to generate funds required for further business expansion (specifically for the purchase of new airplanes and opening of new flight routes).
The Indonesian government may soon revise its negative investment list (in Indonesian: dafter negatif investasi) to attract more foreign investment into Indonesia. The government is specifically seeking to allow bigger foreign stakes in the management of airports across the Archipelago.
Airport Councils International, the only worldwide trade representative of the world's airports, considers Bali's I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport the world's third-best airport in the category "airports with an annual passenger capacity of 15-25 million people in 2016". The airport's score improved from 4.74 in the 2015 edition to 4.92 in the latest edition. To continue improving its performance, the airport operator will continue to invest in airport facilities as well as supporting infrastructure.
Sriwijaya Air, the third-largest airline in Indonesia, decided to postpone its initial public offering (IPO) on the Indonesia Stock Exchange - by one or two months - to April or May 2017 (initially the company targeted to conduct this corporate action in March 2017). Chandra Lie, President Director of Sriwijaya Air, said the airline needs more time to prepare the IPO. Lie added that it may also revise the number of shares that are offered to the public. Earlier, Sriwijaya Air planned to release 25 percent of its total outstanding capital stock.
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Governments’ social and business restrictions (imposed in the context of preventing the further spread of COVID-19 in society) and people’s concern over the virus have damaged both the tourism and transportation industry in an unprecedented way.
The other day, I had a conversation with my neighbors – a married couple who run a bakery and café in the city center of Yogyakarta. From previous conversations I knew that their business is heavily affected by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Even up to the point that they had to find a cheaper school for their oldest daughter.
On 28 August 2020 Indonesian President Joko Widodo officially opened Yogyakarta International Airport (YIA), a brand new airport that is located in Kulon Progo in the Special Region of Yogyakarta; a region known as one of Indonesia’s main tourism centers. Many in fact call Yogyakarta the ‘heart and soul of Indonesia’.
Across the world, concern over the COVID-19 pandemic grew in September 2020 as the number of new COVID-19 cases continued to rise rapidly. Worldwide, at the end of September 2020, some 34 million people have been infected with the virus, while more than one million people have died after contracting the virus.
Investigators reported their preliminary findings in the investigation into the causes of the fatal crash of Lion Air flight JT-610 to Indonesian parliament on Wednesday 28 November 2018. These preliminary findings should not be confused with conclusions. Therefore, it is too early to pinpoint a definitive cause (or causes) of the accident that occurred in the early morning of 29 October 2018 and killed all 189 people on board (including crew).
Indonesia's air transport industry is about to see a big change as the nation's national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia said it will take over operational control of the rival Sriwijaya Group. This move seriously boosts the Garuda Group's share of the fast-growing domestic aviation market.
When 189 people – consisting of passengers and flight crew - boarded Lion Air flight 610 in the early morning of Monday 29 October 2018, no-one expected that it would be their last flight. After all, the Lion Air plane - a Boeing 737 MAX 8 powered by two CFM International LEAP engines - was a brand new airplane that had been delivered to Lion Air on 13 August 2018 and had only been operated by the Indonesian low-cost airline since 15 August 2018. In the two and-a-half months it had been in service the aircraft had flown about 800 hours.
The tourism industry of Indonesia is one of the most important industries in terms of the nation's foreign exchange earnings. However, compared to its neighboring countries - specifically Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand - Indonesia lags behind in terms of foreign visitor arrivals. This "failure" is partly attributed to the weak state of Indonesia's infrastructure. This includes the lack of enough airports or the lack of enough aircraft and passenger handling capacity at existing airports.
In 2017 Indonesia's Transportation Ministry allowed the opening of 83 new flight routes (commercial civil flights), consisting of 58 domestic routes and 25 international routes. There are two reasons why the government encourages the opening of new routes: (1) to make the remote areas of Indonesia less isolated, and (2) to strengthen inter & intra regional transportation.
Indonesia's flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, a state-controlled five-star airline that is listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, requested to postpone the arrival of new airplanes in an attempt to improve the company's corporate earnings. Pahala M. Mansury, General Director of Garuda Indonesia, said the order (the number of airplanes) has not been revised, neither has the company's fleet plan (that runs to 2020) been changed. Only the timing of arrival of five planes has been altered.
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