"After all, Garuda`s operating income in 2010 reached Rp19.5 trillion, up 9.4 percent from Rp17.8 trillion in 2009," Garuda Indonesia President Director Emirsyah Satar said here on Thursday.
Overall, the operational activities of the company were on the increase last year as could be seen from a 30 percent increase in its fuel needs and the growing number of passengers to 13 million from 10.3 million, he said.
"Last year, we bought 24 new planes (23 B737-800s and 1 A330-200). To operate them, we needed crew members while at the same time the utility of planes was still low," he said.
He said the company last year saw its availability seat kilometers (ASK) grow to 25.7 billion from 21.7 billion the year before.
"The passenger margin (yield) in 2010 rose 13.7 percent to 8.6 cents US dollar from 7.5 cents US dollar in 2009," he said.
Garuda`s load factor last year reached 71.7 percent, down 1.5 percent compared to 73.1 percent in the previous year, with the on time performance (OTP) reaching 80.2 percent, he said.
"In 2010 we also accomplished a debt restructuring program. In the past four years Garuda was able to slash its debts to US$436 million from US$868 million," he said.
Therefore, he added the national flag carrier had to spend US$40 million to US$50 million per year until 2016.
Asked to comment on the targets of the company`s performance this year, he declined to elaborate because it was related to the regulation of the Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Board (Bapepam-LK).
"Sorry, we cannot tell you about prediction. Under the regulation, we are unlikely to do so. We don`t want to influence the price of (Garuda) shares," he said.(*)
(S012/R013)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
