I

ndonesia’s fast growing airline, Sky Aviation, will take delivery of the first three of 12 Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft in October to further boost the company’s expansion, an executive has said.

Marketing manager Sutito Zainudin said the three Sukhoi jets would serve several new routes opening in the next few months.

“The first Sukhoi will arrive in October followed by the second and third by December. We are very confident that this new fleet will strengthen our position in Indonesia’s aviation industry,” Sutito told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He said the 100-seat aircraft would serve passengers on new routes connecting big cities in provinces and regencies, such as Jakarta – Batam, Batam – Natuna, and Bandung – Batam.

“We will continue to take delivery of the jets until 2015,” he said.

The purchase is valued at US$380.4 million.

The contract between Sky Aviation and Sukhoi Civil Aircraft was signed during the International Aviation and Space Salon, MAKS-2011, in Zhukovsky, Russia, on Aug. 16, 2011.

The company had planned to delay delivery until completion of the investigation into the Sukhoi Superjet 100 airliner crash in Mount Salak, West Java on May 9. The crash killed all 45 people on board, including nine Sky Aviation flight attendants, eight Russian crew members, one American citizen, and one French passenger along with 35 Indonesians. Such investigations typically take at least six months.

Soekarno-Hatta International Airport’s Terminal 1C will be the base of the expanded operation.

The firm will add two Boeing B737-300 aircraft to their fleet this year. The first Boeing will arrive in the end of July.

“We expect to operate the B737-300 in early August at the latest. We are currently processing documentation for the air transportation directorate general,” he said,optimistic that the documents would be ready within two weeks.

One B737-300 will serve Jakarta-Pekanbaru-Batam-Natuna routes four times a week. The other has been chartered by an oil and gas company for three years.

“The addition of five new aircraft to the fleet will mean we will have served 1 million passengers by the end of this year,” he said.

With nine aircraft in operations for both scheduled and charter flights that include Fokker 50s, Cessna Grand Caravan, and Cirrus SR20, Sky Aviation carried up to 450,000 passengers last year.

Besides Jakarta and Pekanbaru, they have bases in Denpasar, Bali and Pangkal Pinang, Bangka Belitung.

The company’s Air Operator Certificate gives them the right to fly on 70 domestic routes and three international routes.

As of today, 30 percent of those routes have opened including Pekanbaru – Malaka, Malaysia.

Another Indonesian domestic carrier PT Kartika Airlines, which has ordered 30 Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft, was not available for comment on the schedule of the delivery of their order.