"Aircraft quality and security will remain our focus of attention."
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Citilink Indonesia has set a target of four million passengers for this year with total ticket sales reaching Rp2 trillion and focusing on a low-cost service.

"Right now out of 66 million airline passengers 60 percent are passengers of low-cost carriers making the chance to operate in the segment is bright," Citilink Indonesia CEO Arif Wibowo said on the sidelines of the signing of a cooperation agreement between Citilink and Bank Mandiri here on Tuesday.

Arif said although Citilink`s focus is on low-cost service it does not mean it neglects security and quality. He said the business unit of flag carrier Garuda Indonesia would always refer to Garuda with regard to service and aircraft standards.

"Aircraft quality and security will remain our focus of attention. But facilities certainly will not equal those of expensive carriers," he said.

He admitted competition is increasing in the low-cost segment but he was optimistic Citilink would be able to meet its ticket sales target by among others cooperating with Bank Mandiri.

"Mandiri has had a travel center for booking tickets using Mandiri credit card, which will certainly help us increase our passengers in the future," he said.

Arif said Citilink is targeting to own 50 Airbus A320 planes by the end of 2015.

He said the aircraft would be ordered through PT Garuda Indonesia as its principal company through a leasing scheme.

"Right now we have had 15 commercial planes and in November we will add six more to make the total to 21. Next year we will add 10 more and by the end of 2015 we are targeting to have 50 planes and all of them will be Airbus A320," he said.

He said Citilink next month will also use flight number to QG to replace its present number GA which belongs to Garuda Indonesia.

Arif said Citilink Indonesia right now serves eight routes namely Jakarta, Surabaya, Batam, Banjarmasin, Denpasar, Balikpapan, Medan and Ujungpandang.

"Ahead we will add Bandung-Surabaya, Bandung-Bali, Lombok-Surabaya routes and later a flight service to Sorong in Papua in the fourth quarter," he said.

After receiving an Air Operator Certificate on July 5, 2012 Citilink is allowed to serve flight service in 70 domestic and 16 regional routes. Arif however said that Citilink`s focus this year is still on increasing the number of regional routes.(T.SDP-47/H-YH/F001)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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