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ational carrier Garuda Indonesia will take delivery of two CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft from Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier Aerospace in October, an executive says.

The aircraft will be used to serve short-range domestic routes as part of its business expansion in remote areas of eastern Indonesia traditionally served by ailing PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines.

“We will connect five big cities in the country: Medan [North Sumatra], Balikpapan [East Kalimantan], Makassar [South Sulawesi], Denpasar [Bali] and Jakarta to boost connectivity,” Garuda Indonesia vice president for western Indonesia Suranto said in Yogyakarta on Friday.

“We now have 94 aircraft and we aim to increase that to 195 by 2015. The procurement will be carried out gradually,” he continued, adding that the company needed up to Rp 37.6 trillion (US$3.9 billion) to meet the procurement target,” he added.

Separately in Jakarta, senior communications manager Ikhsan Rosan said that the airline would connect Makassar with cities like Balikpapan and Tarakan, East Kalimantan; Ternate, North Maluku; Gorontalo; Sorong and Manokwari, West Papua; ; Mataram, East Nusa Tenggara, and Kupang, West Nusa Tenggara.

“We are going to operate five Bombardier aircraft that will be based in Makassar this year,” Ikhsan told The Jakarta Post in a text message on Friday.

The company signed a contract to purchase 18 Bombardier CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft at the Singapore Airshow in February with an option to buy an additional 18. Besides Makassar, the aircraft would be used to serve its regional hubs: Medan, North Sumatra; Balikpapan, East Kalimantan; Denpasar, Bali; and Biak, West Papua.

He said the aircraft would not only help increase connectivity of towns around these hubs, but also strengthen Garuda’s domestic networks.

The airline’s subsidiary PT GMF AeroAsia corporate secretary Dwi Prasmono Adjie said that Bombardier’s Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facilities in Makassar has been finished recently.

“Our engineers have the ability to repair Bombardier aircraft and we are assisted by experts from Canada,” Dwi said.

He said the company had started to train its engineers to repair the sub 100-jet since early this year and they have set a target to conduct heavy maintenance on the jets in 2014.

GMF will become the first maintenance and repair center in Asia-Pacific for the Canadian based aircraft manufacturer after both parties signed a letter of intent in June.

Dwi said that the repair center would be an important facility to expand its business by maintaining and repairing aircraft from the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in supporting Garuda Indonesia’s operations.

Besides Garuda, companies that use the Canadian aircraft include Delta Air, BritAir, Lufthansa CityLine, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, American Eagle Airlines, Air Canada Jazz, Scandinavia Airlines, SkyWest Airlines and China Express.