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AKARTA: A newcomer in the country’s airline industry, Pacific Royale, has taken delivery of its first Fokker 50, a senior official said in Jakarta on Monday.

“We received the first Fokker 50 last week and it is now being painted in Bandung’s Husein Sastranegara Airport,” president director Samuder Sukardi told The Jakarta Post.

The airline plans to start operations at the end of March, with routes connecting cities in Indonesia and serving international destinations such as Mumbai in India and Hong Kong with two Airbus A320-200s and two Fokker 50s.

“One aircraft will arrive every week,” he said. He said that initially Pacific Royale would serve the Jakarta–Surabaya and the Jakarta–Batam routes due to the limited number of aircraft.

He also said the firm had recruited 20 pilots to fly the four aircraft and had recently signed an agreement with Garuda Maintenance Facilities AeroAsia and Singapore Engineering Service for its Airbus and the Fokker Service Asia Singapore for its Fokker. Pacific Royale is 51 percent owned by Gunarni Gunawan and 49 percent by Indian investor Tarun Trika.

Total investment in the airline reached US$60 million: $40 million to purchase and lease 10 aircraft and the remainder for operational costs and fuel.