Mandala Air expanding to serve 9,000 passengers in 2009

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sun, 10/12/2008 10:11 AM | Business

One of the country's older airlines, PT Mandala Airlines, expects to up its passenger load to 8,000-9,000 in the following year, a potential 80 percent increase from this year's target of 5,000.

"We have 16 ships in our fleet and we're planning to increase the total to 20 in 2009," Mandala Airlines chief executive officer Warwick Brady told Kompas.com in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, during the weekend.

Brady said the airline currently flies five Airbus A320s, four Airbus A319s and several Boeing aircraft.

The airline, along with Garuda Indonesia, AirFast and Premi Air, is in the fast-track program supervised by transportation authorities to improve airline security and inspections. It will phase out the Boeings eventually and operate only Airbus planes.

The company, Brady added, had already placed a US$1.8 billion order for 30 more Airbus planes to support its expansion planes, particularly upcoming new routes.

"I cannot say in detail as of yet which new routes Mandala may serve," Brady said.

Mandala recently opened up routes to four new destinations in four provinces: Bengkulu, Jambi, Pangkalpinang and Pontianak.

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