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Pelita Air to add planes, routes in push for passenger segment
PT Pelita Air Service, a small airline previously offering charter flights for Pertamina, is entering Indonesia’s air passenger market with big plans for the next five years.
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A Pelita Air Airbus A320 aircraft lands at Soekarno Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, on April 11, 2022. (Courtesy of Pertamina)
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T Pelita Air Service, a subsidiary of state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina, has detailed plans for its expansion over the coming years as it enters the domestic air passenger market with full force.
Having offered charter services in the past few years, Pelita Air is now entering the scheduled flights business with the aim of adding 10 new planes annually over the next five years, starting in 2023.
By the end of this year, the airline is set to operate a total of eight aircraft, up from the first two aircraft it bought in April for its scheduled flights segment.
Around 80 new pilots and 160 crew members are to be recruited every year to man the increasing fleet
“We cannot say much yet about gaining market share. Our smallest competitors [for domestic travel], like AirAsia, have at least 25 planes, while we [will have] just a third of that [at the end of the year],” Pelita Air CEO Dendy Kurniawan told the media on Wednesday.
Read also: Pelita Air diversifies into scheduled flights
Dendy explained that the airline would lease rather than purchase aircraft for its expansion and that it would only operate one type of aircraft, the Airbus A320, which was similar to AirAsia's strategy to minimize costs.
