New aircraft:  Passengers board an aircraft belonging to national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten. The airline will decide on whether to buy 30 wide-body jets, potentially worth US$9 billion, from Airbus or archrival Boeing by year-end. The new planes would replace Airbus 330s and allow new flight routes to Europe. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)

Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is to add more flights to destinations in China and the Middle East next year as part of the airline'€™s efforts to maintain its revenue growth.

Garuda Indonesia president director Arif Wibowo said the airline would focus on serving cities that saw high travel demand.

'€œGaruda is still able to deploy its fleets to markets with big resources,'€ Arif told reporters in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Thursday.

The carrier plans to deploy 22 Airbus 330 aeroplanes to serve several routes, with almost half of the fleet to be directed to China and the Middle East. Six of the assigned aircraft will be dedicated to serving umroh (minor haj) and haj pilgrimages from outside Jakarta, especially from Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, Makassar in South Sulawesi, Surabaya in East Java and Medan in North Sumatra.

'€œCurrently we are also assessing Solo [Surakarta] in Central Java [as a potential point of haj departure] and testing the market in Medina, Saudi Arabia, as well,'€ he said.

The airline would also open new routes connecting Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai in China with Denpasar, Bali, next year, he said.

Data from the company show that Garuda Indonesia transported around 17.69 million passengers during this year'€™s first nine months, a 13.62 percent increase year-on-year (yoy) from last year.

Of that number, 3.18 million passengers traveled on international routes, a 9.7 percent yoy increase.

The company booked stagnant revenue of US$2.85 billion as of September from last year'€™s $2.83
billion. However, its net profits soared 122.55 percent to $50.13 million from the $222.30 million losses it booked as of September last year.

Its cost of goods sold fell 9.44 percent to $2.78 billion from $3.07 billion during the same period last year.

Currency depreciation and fierce competition, Arif said, had caused his firm'€™s yield or average airfare to slide, affecting its narrow revenue growth despite the impressive net profits.

He added that most Asia-Pacific airlines under the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) were facing similar problems.

According to the association'€™s data, revenues of airlines regionally dropped 2.1 percent yoy during this year'€™s first nine month to $82.7 billion. Meanwhile, net profits skyrocketed 211.11 percent to $3 billion.

AAPA, which was established in 1966 in Manila, currently has 16 members including Asiana Airlines, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, Royal Brunei Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways and Singapore Airlines.

Garuda Indonesia, which joined the association in 1967, hosted the group'€™s 59th Assembly of Presidents in Nusa Dua from Nov. 12 to 13.

During the assembly, AAPA members discussed and sought resolutions to several issues hampering industry progress, such as safety, airspace risk assessment, aviation infrastructure, consumer protection and taxes and charges.

Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan, who officially opened the assembly on Thursday, said that his ministry was committed to improving transportation safety and upgrading related infrastructure.

'€œThe Transportation Ministry has allocated around $1 billion of state funds to safety improvement,'€ he said, adding that his ministry would also upgrade airports in the country so that they could serve wide-body aircraft by 2018.

Recently, the ministry instructed state-run airport operator Angkasa Pura II to reschedule flights during busy hours.

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