Merpati airline to buy 15 planes from China

State-Owned Enterprises Minister Mustafa Abubakar has said he expects the purchase of 15 new aircraft from China for state-run Merpati Nusantara airline is to be settled by end of the year.

“Hopefully, we can bring in all of the planes by end of this year,” Mustafa said Monday in Jakarta as quoted by tempointeraktif.com, adding that the government had so far imported two of the 15 planes.

Merpati Nusantara has reportedly received US$232 million in loans from the Chinese government and Exim Bank of China to buy the aircraft.