Citilink's Business Projected to Outperform Garuda Indonesia: SOEs Deputy

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) deputy minister Kartika Wirjoatmodjo on Wednesday said the business of low-cost carrier Citilink is projected to outperform its parent company Garuda Indonesia especially if the LCC flies the same route as Garuda. 

He argues that LCCs, with their cost advantages, can potentially open a large market for domestic air travel segments across a wide array of passengers.

“Later on if Garuda’s debt restructure succeeds, Citilink’s business can grow larger. We can enter Garuda’s flight routes as LCCs have higher carriers,” said Kartika in Bekasi on November 10.

LCC’s huge potential refers to Garuda’s public expose that showed the carrier’s market share in 2020 dropped to 35.3 percent due to the domination of LCCs. In 2019, the flag-carrier’s domestic market share was 43.4 percent. 

In the future, Citilink will be prepared to focus solely on major flight routes that are profitable, such as the Jakarta-Surabaya and Jakarta-Denpasar flight routes. 

Previously reported, Garuda Indonesia announced its plan to gradually slash 97 domestic and international routes out of its original 237. This is mentioned in the company’s plan and company restructuring proposal. They also plan to reduce its fleet from 13 types of aircraft to just seven.

Read: Erick Thohir to Ask Garuda, Citilink to Increase Flights to Bali

FRANCISCA CHRISTY ROSANA