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Citilink to step up expansion to eastern Indonesia
Low-cost carrier PT Citilink Indonesia, a subsidiary of national flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia, eyes further expansion to eastern Indonesia with the arrival of new aircraft
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ow-cost carrier PT Citilink Indonesia, a subsidiary of national flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia, eyes further expansion to eastern Indonesia with the arrival of new aircraft.
This year, the company is looking to establish routes to several towns in Sulawesi—namely Gorontalo, Palu in Central Sulawesi and Kendari in Southwest Sulawesi— using Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport in Makassar, South Sulawesi, as a hub.
Citilink already serves flights to Manado in North Sulawesi and to Jayapura in Papua.
“Citilink already [has] a strong [presence] in the western part. Now it is time to step up expansion to eastern Indonesia,” Citilink Indonesia acting commercial director Agus Irianto said at the Garuda Maintenance Facility (GMF) AeroAsia Workshop in Cengkareng, Banten on Friday.
Agus claimed that the new routes would possess a sufficient load factor of at least 80 percent, dismissing concerns that the eastern region did not offer “economically feasible” business.
“It is not true that routes to eastern Indonesia are not economical. We have already calculated the expected load factors for the planned routes,” he said.
Citilink recorded an average overall load factor of 81 percent in 2016 and hopes to increase it to 82 percent in 2017.
The company also plans to spread its wings to the Asian region. It is now assessing the possibility of opening routes to Bangkok and Australia.
It already has chartered flights to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, during the haj season and offered flights to Tanjung Pinang in Riau Islands from five cities in China—namely Changsa, Fuzhou, Guiyang, Wuhan and Xiamen—during the holiday season from December 2016 to January 2017, a service it plans to offer again this year.
Five new Airbus A320 new engine option (neo) aircraft will play a role in the expansion this year. Citilink welcomed the arrival of the first one from Airbus’ factory in Toulouse, France, on Friday.
The new aircraft will add to the 45 A320s Citilink has at the moment, all of the current engine option (ceo) type.
Citilink has ordered a total of 35 A320neo to be delivered in phases until 2021. With new engines and improved aerodynamics, the new model has 20 percent higher fuel efficiency than the previous model.
“The additional 20 percent in fuel efficiency is significant for middle-distance routes. With the A320neo, we can fly from Jakarta to Jeddah without stopping,” Citilink Indonesia acting president director and finance director Mega Satria said.
With the A320ceo, Citilink makes a refueling stop in Kuala Namu, North Sumatra, on outbound flights and in Ahmedabad, India, on the way back.
As the fleet expands, Citilink expects to carry 20 percent more passengers than the 11.2 million it served in 2016. It currently holds a 15 percent market share in the domestic low-cost segment in terms of passenger numbers.
The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded 95.22 million airline passengers last year, up 15.5 percent from 2015.
The number of domestic passengers increased by 17 percent to 80.45 million, while that of international passengers climbed 8.2 percent to 14.77 million.
