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armarking Rp 52 billion in spending to strengthen its marketing strategy, PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines has set its eyes on an aggressive campaign to boost revenues by 60 percent to Rp 3.2 trillion this year.

Merpati corporate secretary Imam Turidy said that the airline would upgrade its call center and give away lottery prizes in the form of 12 Mercedes Benz smart cars, 12 Nissan Juke cars, one Toyota Velfire and 55 BlackBerry Onyx smartphones.

“Merpati is celebrating its golden anniversary. We want to serve our customers better and we want to be a healthier company,” Imam told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the Merpati 50 Years Anniversary Celebration in Jakarta on Wednesday night.

The company also appointed Indonesia’s senior actor and director Deddy Mizwar as its ambassador to help Merpati promote its business.

“We suffered a net loss of Rp 147 billion last year. With this aggressive marketing strategy, we aim to book Rp 70 billion net profits this year,” operational director Asep Ekanugraha told the Post.

He was optimistic that the target could be achieved with the operations of new aircraft. Asep said the airline would operate 8 Boeing 737 series this year, enabling them to increase flight frequencies as well as to open new routes. One airplane will arrive each month starting in April, he said.

The airline’s senior vice president of marketing Yose Rizal said that Merpati was planning to spread its wings to the Southeast Asia region.

He said that the airline was going to link Bandung to Kuala Lumpur, Surabaya to Singapore and Medan to Penang.

“We are going to connect cities with top market potential in Indonesia to popular destinations in the ASEAN region,” he said.

Looking at healthy economic growth, he said that Merpati aimed to bring in 5 million passengers this year, a 108 percent jump from 2.41 million passengers in 2011.

Last year, the airline received a Rp 561 billion bridging loan from the State Asset Management Company (PPA) to help it pay off its debt, which amounted to Rp 8.2 billion to the state oil and gas company PT Pertamina for fuel purchases from Aug. 26 to Oct. 16, 2011.

The airline also owed Pertamina Rp 212 billion for fuel supplied during 2006-2007 and Rp 44 billion for the 2007 period to Aug. 25, 2011, amounting to a total of 264.2 billion in debt.

The airline currently has 35 aircraft; 29 of them are operating on a daily basis, including nine Boeing 737 series units, three DHC-6, two Casa C-212, one Fokker-100, and 14 units of the MA-60.

Moreover, Merpati plans to buy 40 100-seat ARJ 21-700 jet aircraft from China for approximately US$1.2 billion.

The airline will begin receiving the jets in 2013. (nfo)