Garuda Indonesia's new chief unveils global ambition
Wibowo wants to take over Jakarta terminal as airline expands to become a world player
Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport, among the world's 10 busiest by passenger traffic, handles twice the volume it was designed for. Arif Wibowo plans to push that limit further.
The new chief executive of Garuda Indonesia wants to take over the airport's third terminal next year after a revamp and reserve it for the state carrier's expansion.
Wibowo said Garuda planned to acquire 250 aircraft over 10 years and increase the fleet of its low-cost airline unit Citilink Indonesia fourfold to 120 planes by 2022.
"By next year, we will make Terminal Three a dedicated terminal for Garuda, and Garuda will make it the base for SkyTeam in the southern hemisphere of the Asia-Pacific region," he said, referring to the alliance of 20 airlines.
A Jakarta hub for SkyTeam would help its members tap the Australian market and put it into competition with Singapore's Changi Airport and a larger Star Alliance carrier network that includes Singapore Airlines.
Singapore is not standing still, with plans to almost double the capacity of its airport over the next decade, as economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region makes it more affordable for people to travel by air.
Garuda's competitors are not idling either. Lion Air, Indonesia's biggest carrier, planned to have 1,000 planes, its founder Rusdi Kirana said last year, after he agreed to buy 230 Boeing 737 planes in 2012 and 234 Airbus jets in 2013.
Soekarno-Hatta handled 60 million passengers in 2013, the 10th-most in the world and ahead of Singapore and Hong Kong, according to data from the International Air Transport Association.
State airport operator Angkasa Pura II planned to sell as much as six trillion rupiah (HK$3.58 billion) of bonds this year and next to fund renovations to the Jakarta airport, president director Budi Karya Sumadi said last month.
The airport's Terminal One, dating from 1985, handles domestic routes. About 1.6 million Indonesians flew from Soekarno-Hatta across the world's largest archipelago in January, according to government data. Apart from revamping the terminal buildings, the government is building a rail line to improve transport to Jakarta's centre.
The second terminal, used by Garuda and most international carriers, presents visitors with a warren of hallways to navigate immigration, before a gauntlet of baggage handlers and taxi touts. The third terminal, the most modern, is reserved for low-cost carriers and used by AirAsia.
Wibowo said Citilink would serve its first international routes next year to compete with AirAsia and Tiger Airways.
President Joko Widodo's government tapped Wibowo, formerly the chief of Citilink, to run Garuda in December.
Garuda planned to increase its fleet size by an average of 6 to 7 per cent a year over the next decade and most of the plane orders would be for single-aisle jets to expand domestic and regional destinations as feeders for its long-haul aircraft to Europe, Middle East and North Asia, Wibowo said.
It currently flies to London, Amsterdam and Tokyo, after a European Union ban was ended in 2009. In October, the airline placed a US$4.9 billion order with Boeing for 50 single-aisle Boeing 737 series planes.
"We just entered the global arena, but right now our size is not enough," Wibowo said. "We need to capitalise on what we have and become a global player. That is our task going forward."
Garuda expects to carry 36 million passengers this year, up from almost 30 million last year.
