Have You Established Communication, Garuda Indonesia Wants To Buy A Chinese COMAC Aircraft?

President Director of Garuda Indonesia, Military Commander Tsani Panjaitan. (Mery Handayani / VOI)

JAKARTA - PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk, opened its voice regarding the news that it was looking at a plane made by a Chinese manufacturer, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC). The plane is predicted to be a competitor to Boeing to Airbus.

President Director of Garuda Indonesia, Military Commander Tsani Panjaitan admitted that his party had indeed established communication with the COMAC.

"If communication has started," said the Military Commander at the BUMN Ministry office, Jakarta, Thursday, January 2.

Even though he has established communication, the Military Commander said that there has been no decision on whether Garuda Indonesia will use an aircraft made by COMAC or not.

"But if we really operate the plane, it's still a very long process," he explained.

Garuda Wants To Add 20 Aircraft

The Military Commander said that the company plans to add 20 aircraft fleets this year. Currently, there are 71 fleets of aircraft owned.

"So this January we have 2 more Boeing aircraft. And in February we will operate another 737 additional. Hopefully, by 2025 we can reach 20 planes," he said.

For your information, quoted from the official website, COMAC is a company owned by the Chinese Government which was founded on May 11, 2008. The company has produced three types of aircraft.

The details are C909 which is a short-range (short-medium range) aircraft. Then, C919 which was the first jet aircraft developed by China independently. Then, C929 which is a large-body long-range jet (long-range widebody).