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ational flag carrier Garuda Indonesia’s strategic business unit Citilink has recently received its Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from the Transportation Ministry, enabling it to become an independent operator next month.

Citilink senior vice president Arif Wibowo said that the new company would operate under the name PT Citilink Indonesia. An official announcement regarding the spin-off from Garuda will be released on July 6.

“We are very pleased to announce that we have received the AOC and are currently preparing some details ahead of the spin-off, including changing all of our operating documents from Garuda Indonesia to Citilink,” Arif said.

He said that the company was also waiting for approval from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) of its request to use G1 as the company’s international code.

They expected to receive the approval within a few days, he said.

The airline will operate 11 aircraft as soon as they separate from Garuda: one B737-300, five B737-400s and five A320 although the B737-300 will be phased out later this year.

“We are going to receive 10 new A320s in the second semester of this year, increasing our fleet to 20 aircraft by the end of 2012,” he said.

Currently the airline operates nine aircraft that serve nine domestic routes, including Jakarta–Denpasar, Jakarta–Surabaya, Jakarta–Banjarmasin, Surabaya–Makassar and Jakarta–Medan.

After the spin-off, it plans to increase the Jakarta–Surabaya flights from seven to nine a day and Jakarta–Denpasar flights from two to five a day.

In addition, growing demand from passengers means it will open new routes linking the capital to Yogyakarta, Padang, West Sumatra and Pekanbaru, Riau.

“With more aircraft, we hope to carry 4 million passengers by the end of this year, up from 1.6 million last year,” he said.

Meanwhile, Garuda Indonesia marketing director Elisa Lumbantoruan said that Citilink would not only operate as a low-cost carrier within the Garuda group, but also as a feeder to connect the group’s jet routes to remote areas.

The 50 units of either turbo-propeller driven ATR-72s or Bombardier Q400s that Garuda plans to buy at the Farnborough Airshow next month will be given to Citilink.

“Citilink will establish a unit to develop the propeller-aircraft business to act as feeder to the group,” Elisa said.

He said that the turboprop aircraft were expected to arrive in the first semester of 2013 and they would operate in the second semester.

Garuda Indonesia president director Emirsyah Satar said their plan to enter the propeller business was in line with the government’s Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Growth (MP3EI).

“We need to develop the country’s regions by providing access to transportation and we see huge potential in the [propeller] market,” Emirsyah said.

Apart from the remote-area routes, the company previously announced it would enter short-range and high-density domestic routes later this year after taking delivery of Bombardier aircraft in October.

The sub-100 seater Bombardier CRJ1000 NextGen will be used to serve its regional hubs in Medan, North Sumatra; Denpasar, Bali; Balikpapan, East Kalimantan; Makassar, South Sulawesi and Biak, West Papua.

They signed a contract to purchase 18 Bombardier jets at the Singapore Airshow in February with an option to buy a further 18.