Erick Thohir Asks Red Plate Airlines To Explore Aircraft Procurement With Boeing

SOE Minister Erick Thohir (photo: dock. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir asked state-owned airlines to explore aircraft procurement with aircraft manufacturer from the US, Boeing. This plan departs from Indonesia, which lacks aircraft fleets.

The state-owned airlines in question are PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk, PT Citilink Indonesia, and PT Pelita Air Service.

Erick said ideally the aircraft in Indonesia was at 700 units. However, after the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of aircraft in Indonesia has decreased to the remaining 390 fleets.

This condition was also conveyed by Erick Thohir directly to Boeing during a bilateral meeting with the Asian American Chamber of Commerce today at the Ministry of SOEs Office.

"We encourage this collaboration. In fact, one of them is open to increasing the number of aircraft through Boeing. But how is the procurement roadmap and then leasing and all kinds of things," he said at a press conference at the Ministry of SOEs, Jakarta, Thursday, December 5.

Regarding the procurement of this aircraft fleet, Erick admitted that he would discuss with US, Exim Bank and the aircraft lessor export banks.

However, there is no certainty when the number of fleets or the value of procurement will be agreed between the BUNN airline and Boeing. This is because this adjusts the roadmaps of each airline and producer.

"I offer how, for example, the Exim Bank, the leasing company can negotiate directly with Garuda, Citilink, and Pelita. But according to the roadmaps of each airline, that's what we do," he said.

Erick also said that he would invite the Minister of Transportation Dudy Purwagandhi and the Minister of Investment/Head of BKPM Rosan Roeslani to intensify this cooperation plan with Boeing.

Not only with Boeing, Erick admitted that he was also open to collaborating with aircraft manufacturers from other countries. Such as Airbus and Comac so that the number of aircraft fleets in Indonesia is not stagnant.

"So yes, these solutions inevitably have to work together whether with Airbus, Boeing, or Comac from China, or planes from Russia, which may usually make this. We have to because we can't be constrained by the same number of planes in 10 years. This is very dangerous, because we ourselves are an archipelagic country," he said.