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new full service player in the country’s airline industry, Pacific Royale, has to postpone its operations to next month due to difficulties in finding qualified pilots to fly their Fokker 50 aircraft, an executive said.

CEO Samudera Sukardi said in Jakarta on Tuesday that the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) could not be issued by the government in March as originally scheduled because the airline was still training their pilots.

“Looking for qualified pilots to fly Fokker 50s in Indonesia is not easy and we need time to train our jet pilots to fly the turboprop-powered aircraft,” Samudera said.

He said in order to operate five Fokker 50s this year, the airline needs to have 40 pilots. Based on the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations (CASR), each of them has to take at least a-75 hour Fokker 50 training.

“We are optimistic that we can obtain the AOC this month because the training is going to be finished soon and we are conducting aircraft demonstrations and flight tests now,” he added.

According to their SIUAU (flight permit), Pacific Royale has won approval to fly 81 routes, 70 percent of which will be domestic.

Their routes will connect big and small cities in the archipelago and also serves international destinations, such as Mumbai, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

In addition, the new airline will start their operations with two Airbus A320-200s and two Fokker 50s; The A320s aircraft will serve Jakarta – Batam and Jakarta – Surabaya routes while the Fokker 50s will fly Surabaya to Semarang, Bayuwangi, and Madiun.

With an initial investment of US$ 60 million, Pacific Royale plans to operate 10 aircraft this year; four A320s, five Fokker 50s and 1 unit of A330. The airline has secured a slot at terminal 3 Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, Banten, he said. “We believe that we can compete with Garuda Indonesia in this full service market segment,” he said.

Contacted separately, Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan was in line with Samudera’s statement saying that the airline would not need a long time to obtain their AOC.

“Their AOC has entered the last phase. We just have to wait for the result of the flight tests,” he said.

He said that air safety investigators from the ministry are now finalizing the airline’s flight test documents.

He even said that if everything went smoothly, the regulator would issue the AOC sometime this month.

Pacific Royale is an Indonesian – Indian joint project owned by Gunarni Gunawan, with a 51 percent stake, and Indian investor Tarun Trika, with 49 percent. (nfo)