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Kartika buys 30 Sukhoi Super jets
Indonesian domestic carrier PT Kartika Airlines has agreed to order 30 Sukhoi Superjet 100 airplanes in a contract estimated to reach US$951 million
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ndonesian domestic carrier PT Kartika Airlines has agreed to order 30 Sukhoi Superjet 100 airplanes in a contract estimated to reach US$951 million.
The contract was signed at the Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, England, by the president of the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC), Vladimir Prishyazhnyuk, and Kartika CEO Kim Johannes Mulia.
With the agreement, Karika becomes the first company in Southeast Asia to purchase the new Super Jet 100 (SSJ-100) airplanes.
“The agreement outlines the basic terms for the delivery of 15 SSJ-100 aircrafts in the basic configuration and provides an option for 15 additional planes. The order is worth $951 million,” SCAC said in a statement.
The delivery of the airplanes will be carried out between 2012 and 2015.
SSJ-100 is a medium-haul passenger aircraft developed by Sukhoi in cooperation with US and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.
Kim Johanes said the SSJ-100 would be perfect to fill a market gap on regional capacity as major Indonesian carriers are focused on large single aisle aircraft.
“With this new right-sized aircraft we can develop and serve more point-to-point destinations with obvious operational efficiency and unsurpassed comfort for passengers,” he said, adding that the new aircraft would be able to effectively support Kartika’s regional flight services.
Kartika plans to cooperate with state aircraft company PT Dirgantara Indonesia on the maintenance, repair and overhaul of the new Sukhoi aircraft.
Herry Bakti Gumay, the air transportation director general at the Transportation Ministry, said airlines in the country mostly still competed in providing services on existing domestic routes because they promised higher profits and due to the fact that most aircraft were still too large to serve regional routes.
SSJ-100 airplane might be better suited to serve such regional routes, Herry said.
Kartika had not yet informed the ministry where it planned to operate the new airplanes. “But the planes can service any airport with at least a 1,500 meter-long runway. [Indonesia] has those airports,” he said.
Currently, Kartika serves eight domestic routes; Batam-Jambi, Batam-Medan, Batam-Padang, Batam-Palembang, Jakarta-Batam, Jakarta-Medan, Jakarta-Padang and Medan-Padang. It operates three units of aircraft; MD-80, Boeing 737-200 and Boeing 737-300.
The company, which is owned by PT Truba, was established in 2001 with its inaugural flight on 15 May 2001.
Meanwhile, British airline Flybe said in London Tuesday it had signed a deal with Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer to buy 35 aircraft worth $1.3 billion, as it drives its expansion in continental Europe.
The order, which comprises 35 firm initial orders of the Embraer E series aircraft for $1.3 billion with options for 65 more and purchase rights for a further 40, has the total potential value of $5 billion.
Flybe chairman and chief executive Jim French told Reuters he was confident of growth, despite challenges earlier this year from the Icelandic ash cloud and nervous consumer sentiment.
“We have grown by about 20 percent compound [in the past], we see anything up to 10 percent as going forward,” he said.
He said the group was confident of its business model, which focuses on domestic flights from smaller regional airports, after maintaining a profit through the recession.
