PTDI president director Elfien Goentoro told reporters in Bandung on Wednesday (30/10) that offering of such credit, which gave buyers payment flexibility at generally lower interest rates, could attract overseas customers to buy PTDI aircraft.

“Without buyers credit, it’s difficult to compete because competitors such as Airbus can offer buyers credit at values we are unlikely to be able to match,” he said, naming Argentina as one country to turn down a PTDI offer due to the absence of such credit.

PTDI sent on Wednesday a CN235-220 airplane to Nepal, which is the second country this year to receive a PTDI plane. The first country was Thailand, which received a 28-seater plane NC212i two weeks ago and is scheduled to receive a second, similar plane next month.

Other than the three planes, PTDI has delivered seven aircraft for Indonesian customers this year. In comparison, the aircraft manufacturer, the customers of which are mostly government and military institutions, delivered 18 aircraft last year.

PTDI noted in a statement that the US$30 million plane flown to Nepal was partly financed by the Indonesian Eximbank credit export agency, which provided Rp 207 billion ($14.73 million) in working capital to produce the aircraft.

Eximbank, an agency under the Finance Ministry, actually allocated Rp 354 billion to aid PTDI in producing planes whereby the remaining funds have been allocated to build a 28-seater airplane headed for Senegal next year.

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