Garuda Indonesia Boss Supports Erick Thohir's Steps For Mergers

President Director of Garuda Indonesia Irfan Setiaputra. (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - President Director of Garuda Indonesia Irfan Setiaputra has raised his voice regarding the plan of SOE Minister Erick Thohir regarding the merger of companies or the merger of the aviation industry. He said Garuda Indonesia supports the plan.

As is known, Erick Thohir plans to merge three state-owned airlines, namely PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk, Citilink Indonesia and Pelita Air.

"Garuda Indonesia Group will certainly support and take a positive view of the merger discourse, which will certainly be based on a prudent business outlook study," he said in an official statement, Tuesday, August 22.

Furthermore, Irfan said, until now the discussion process regarding the steps to explore corporate actions is still ongoing intensively.

"The development plan itself is still in its early stages where we are exploring in-depth opportunities for business synergy that can be presented together to optimize aspects of performance profitability while strengthening the business ecosystem of the air transportation industry in Indonesia to bring sustainable benefits to the community," he said.

He said this was also a positive signal for efforts to strengthen the fundamental performance of the company, especially post-restructuring which continues to be optimized through various steps to accelerate the transformation of performance with Indonesian aviation industry players.

"Therefore, regarding the projection of the merger process, of course, we will continue to convey it sustainably if there is a more specific follow-up to the realization of this strategic plan," he said.

Previously, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir planned to merge or merge three state-owned airlines, namely PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk, Citilink Indonesia and Pelita Air.

For your information, this meger action has also been carried out previously in the port and logistics sector by combining four Pelindo companies.

"After carrying out a series of efficiency programs on four Pelindo, we will continue to state-owned enterprises in other clusters, namely airlines. Currently, there are three SOEs engaged in the field of aviation, namely Garuda Indonesia, Citilink, and Pelita Air," he said in an official statement, Tuesday, August 22.

Erick explained that this plan is one of the efforts so that logistics costs in Indonesia continue to decline. So that it will further ease the business world.

He also encouraged efficiency to continue to be the main agenda for state-owned companies.