Indonesia’s national airline, Garuda Indonesia took deliveries of three Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircraft under a sale and leaseback agreement with MC Aviation Partners (MCAP), the aircraft leasing and trading arm of Mitsubishi Corporation.
Garuda Indonesia currently has in order a total of 50 boeing 737-800NGs from Boeing. To support its network expansion Garuda Indonesia will be receiving 24 aircrafts this year including 23 Boeing 737-800NG and one A330-200.
“The new aircraft will be used on domestic and regional routes and supports our five-year ‘Quantum Leap” expansion strategy. We plan to increase the number of domestic departures by double to 2,072 per week and international departures more than threefold to 1,222 a week by 2010,” said Emirsyah Satar, President & CEO Garuda Indonesia.
Garuda Indonesia also plans to almost double its current fleet of 71 aircraft to 116 aircraft by 2014 based mainly on Boeing 737-800NGs and Airbus A330-200s/300s, which are operated on medium and long haul routes.
“We are pleased to announce this important transaction and to expand our relationship with garuda Indonesia, our valued customer”, said Tatsuo Sato, MCAP’s Group CEO